Control method for information apparatus and computer-readable recording medium

ABSTRACT

When selection of a device icon representing one target device among one or more target devices is sensed in a region corresponding to one room included in a floor plan, a control screen for operating, or confirming a state of, the one target device corresponding to the sensed device icon is displayed on a display as overlapped on a display screen representing the floor plan, and device icons representing the target devices installed in the one room are moved out of a display region of the control screen.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a control method for an informationapparatus and a program.

BACKGROUND ART

Technologies for remotely monitoring or remotely controlling one or moretarget devices using one remote controller are proposed.

Patent Document 1 discloses a technology for remotely operating one ormore target devices from a monitor of a television set. Specifically,icons for the one or more target devices are displayed on the right sideof a monitor screen. When a desired one of the icons is selected (i), afloor plan is displayed on the left side of the monitor screen (ii).When a pointer is moved to the location of installation of a targetdevice desired to be operated in the floor plan (iii), an operationscreen for the target device selected by moving the pointer is displayedon the monitor screen (iv) (paragraphs [0138] to [0140] and FIGS. 25Aand 25B).

Patent Document 2 discloses a technology for controlling one or moretarget devices using a single remote controller. Specifically, a floorplan of each room and the condition within the room are displayed on aliquid crystal monitor of the remote controller. For example, the liquidcrystal monitor displays a illumination mark displayed in the case wherean illumination device of a certain room is turned on, a roomtemperature mark that indicates the current temperature of a certainroom, a lock mark in the shape of a hatched window displayed in the casewhere a window of a certain room is locked, a device/facility mark thatindicates the status or the like of a control target object, a mark thatindicates the amount of hot water in the case where the control targetis a bath, and so forth (paragraphs [0037] to [0041] and FIG. 6).

Patent Document 3 relates to a technology for remotely controlling andremotely monitoring open/close operation and the state of an electricbuilding material (such as a hallway door or a skylight). Specifically,a monitor screen of a personal computer displays floor plans for firstand second floors of a property, a picture of the electric buildingmaterial (such as a hallway door or a skylight) and a state display iconthat indicates the open/close state of the electric building materialare displayed at the corresponding position on the floor plans. When thestate display icon is selected, an operation screen for the selectedelectric building material is displayed in another window. The operationscreen includes an open operation button, a close operation button, anoperation monitor screen, and a button for hiding the operation screen(paragraph [0025] and FIGS. 4, 5, and 6).

Patent Document 4 discloses a user interface including a floor plan andan icon. Examples of the icon include an icon representing a receptacle,an icon representing a digital image frame, and an icon representing anillumination device (FIGS. 7 and 8B).

Patent Document 5 discloses a user interface of an illumination system.When an icon associated with a certain light source is dragged into atarget region on a screen and moved toward the center of the targetregion, the intensity of light from the corresponding light source isincreased.

However, Patent Documents 1 to 5 described above need a furtherimprovement.

-   Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.    2007-104567-   Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.    2000-138979-   Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.    2009-213107-   Patent Document 4: U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,223-   Patent Document 5: Japanese Patent No. 5128489

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one general aspect, the techniques disclosed here feature a controlmethod for an information apparatus having a display and being connectedto a network, one or more target devices being controlled over thenetwork, the control method causes a computer of the informationapparatus to: display a display screen representing a floor plan of abuilding on the display, and display device icons representing the oneor more target devices on the display screen representing the floorplan, the device icons being movable; when selection of a device iconrepresenting one target device, among the one or more target devices, issensed in a region corresponding to one room included in the floor plan,display a control screen for operating, or confirming a state of the onetarget device corresponding to the sensed device icon on the display,and move the device icons representing the target devices installed inthe one room out of a display region of the control screen; and output acontrol command to the network on the basis of an operation on thecontrol screen, the control command allowing at least operation or thestate confirmation of the target device corresponding to the one targetdevice.

According to the aspect described above, it is possible to embody afurther improvement.

These general and specific aspects may be implemented using a system, amethod, and a computer program, and any combination of systems, methods,and computer programs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a home controlsystem to which a home controller according to the present disclosure isapplied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing main devices to be controlled by the homecontroller according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the homecontroller, a device, and a server according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of the form ofimplementation of the home controller according to the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the configuration of a basic screen of thehome controller according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a floor plan according to thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the floor plan includingarrangement information for device icons as texts according to the thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the floor plan includingarrangement information for device icons as images according to thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the floor plan includingarrangement information for device icons as images according to thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of transition between a firstfloor display state and a second floor display state of the basic screenof the home controller according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 11A is a diagram showing the configuration of the display state ofa device control screen of the home controller according to the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 11B is a diagram showing the configuration of the display state ofa device control screen of the home controller according to the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a device icon arrangement example of thedisplay state of the device control screen of the home controlleraccording to the present disclosure.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing the configuration of the display state of adevice control screen of the home controller according to the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a device icon arrangement example of thedisplay state of the device control screen of the home controlleraccording to the present disclosure.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a device icon arrangement example of thedisplay state of the device control screen of the home controlleraccording to the present disclosure.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a device icon arrangement example of thedisplay state of the device control screen of the home controlleraccording to the present disclosure.

FIGS. 17A and 17B are diagrams showing a configuration example of thedisplay state of the device control screen of the home controlleraccording to the present disclosure.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of transition between the basicscreen of the home controller and the display state of the devicecontrol screen according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example of transition between the secondfloor display state of the basic screen of the home controller and thedisplay state of the device control screen for the second flooraccording to the present disclosure.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example of transition from the displaystate of the device control screen of a certain device to the displaystate of the device control screen of another device according to thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing an example of transition between thedisplay state and the hidden state of the device control screen of thehome controller according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing an example of an animation for transitionfrom the basic screen of the home controller to the display state of thedevice control screen according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing an example of an animation for transitionfrom the basic screen of the home controller to the display state of thedevice control screen according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing the configuration of a device icon listdisplay screen of the home controller according to the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing an example of transition between the basicscreen of the home controller and the device icon list display screenaccording to the present disclosure.

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing an example of transition between the deviceicon list display screen of the home controller and the display state ofthe device control screen according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 27 is a diagram showing an example of transition between the basicscreen of the home controller and the display state of the devicecontrol screen according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing how the home controller successivelytransitions among the display states of the device control screens fordifferent devices according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing an example of display on the basic screenof devices that cannot be detected on a network according to the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing the configuration of home informationaccording to the present disclosure.

FIG. 31 is a diagram showing the configuration of vertex informationaccording to the present disclosure.

FIG. 32 is a diagram showing the configuration of room informationaccording to the present disclosure.

FIG. 33 is a diagram showing an example of the correspondence betweenthe vertex information and the floor plan for the first floor accordingto the present disclosure.

FIG. 34 is a diagram showing the configuration of a device list managedby the server according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 35 is a diagram showing the configuration of a device list managedby the home controller according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 36 is a sequence diagram showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to acquire the home information from the server according tothe present disclosure.

FIG. 37 is a sequence diagram showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to detect a device on a network when the home controller isconnected to the network according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 38 is a sequence diagram showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to detect a device on a network when the device is connectedto the network according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 39A is a flowchart showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to control a device according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 39B is a flowchart showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to control a device according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 39C is a flowchart showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to control a device according to the embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 39D is a flowchart showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to control a device according to the embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 39E is a flowchart showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to control a device according to the embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 40 is a flowchart showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to generate a control command for a device in accordance withthe content of a contact by a contacting object according to the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 41 is a flowchart showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to transmit a control command according to the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 42 is a sequence diagram showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to directly control a device according to the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 43 is a sequence diagram showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to control a device by way of the server according to thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 44 is a sequence diagram showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to acquire the state of a device from the server according tothe present disclosure.

FIG. 45 is a sequence diagram showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to directly control devices in the case where the homecontroller controls a plurality of devices with one operation accordingto the present disclosure.

FIG. 46 is a sequence diagram showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to control devices by way of the server in the case where thehome controller controls a plurality of devices with one operationaccording to the present disclosure.

FIG. 47 is a sequence diagram showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller to control devices by way of the server in the case where thehome controller controls a plurality of devices with one operationaccording to the present disclosure.

FIG. 48 is a sequence diagram showing the flow of a process for a casewhere a device icon is moved in the home controller according to thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 49 is a sequence diagram showing the flow of a process for updatingthe device lists of the home controller and the server according to thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 50 is a sequence diagram showing the flow of a process for updatingthe device lists of the home controller and the server according to thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 51 is a sequence diagram showing the flow of a process for updatingthe device lists of the home controller and the server according to thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 52 is a diagram showing a floor plan in another pattern accordingto the present disclosure.

FIG. 53 is a diagram showing the configuration of a basic screen thatadopts the floor plan shown in FIG. 52.

FIG. 54 is a diagram showing the display state of a device controlscreen for a case where the floor plan shown in FIG. 52 is adopted.

FIG. 55 is a diagram illustrating transition between the display stateof the basic screen and the display state of the device control screen.

FIG. 56 is a diagram showing the configuration of a floor plan in whichthe size of each room is varied in accordance with the actual room sizein the floor plan shown in FIG. 52.

FIG. 57 is a diagram showing the configuration of a basic screen thatadopts the floor plan shown in FIG. 56.

FIG. 58 is a diagram showing the display state of a device controlscreen for a case where the floor plan shown in FIG. 56 is adopted asthe floor plan.

FIG. 59 is a diagram showing a floor plan in still another patternaccording to the present disclosure.

FIG. 60 is a diagram showing the configuration of a basic screen thatadopts the floor plan shown in FIG. 59.

FIG. 61 is a diagram showing the display state of a device controlscreen for a case where the floor plan shown in FIG. 59 is adopted.

FIG. 62 is a diagram showing a floor plan displayed on a display in thecase where a user performs a pinch-out operation on a room in the floorplan shown in FIG. 59.

FIG. 63 is a diagram showing the display state of a device controlscreen in the floor plan displayed as enlarged shown in FIG. 62.

FIG. 64 is a diagram showing screen transition from the display state ofthe basic screen to the display state of the device control screen.

FIG. 65 is a diagram showing the configuration of a basic screen whichadopts the floor plan shown in FIG. 59 and in which device icons are notdisplayed.

FIG. 66 is a diagram showing screen transition from the display state ofthe basic screen to the display state of the device control screen for acase where the basic screen in which device icons are not displayed isadopted.

FIG. 67 is a diagram showing the configuration of the home informationfor a case where the floor plan shown in FIG. 52 is adopted.

FIG. 68 is a diagram showing the configuration of room information shownin FIG. 67.

FIG. 69 is a diagram showing an example of the correspondence betweenthe display position in the room information shown in FIG. 67 and thefloor plan.

FIG. 70 is a diagram showing the configuration of a device list managedby the server for a case where the floor plan shown in FIG. 52 isadopted.

FIG. 71 is a diagram showing the configuration of a device list managedby the home controller for a case where the floor plan shown in FIG. 52is adopted.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(Story Before Inventing Aspect According to Present Disclosure)

First, the point of view of an aspect according to the presentdisclosure will be described.

In Patent Document 1 described above, icons for one or more targetdevices are displayed on the right side of a monitor screen, and a floorplan is displayed on the left side of the monitor screen. That is, theicons for the one or more target devices and the floor plan aredisplayed separately from each other, and the icons for the one or moretarget devices are not movable. Therefore, the location of installationof a target device desired to be operated in the floor plan isdesignated by moving a pointer. Then, an operation screen is displayed.

In Patent Document 1 described above, because of the configurationdescribed above, the number of operation steps to be taken to display anoperation screen for a desired target device is large, from (i) to (iv)described above. Therefore, when one or more target devices are remotelymonitored or remotely controlled using one remote controller, theoperation steps (i) to (iv) described above are required to operate eachtarget device, which complicates operation. This requires a largernumber of process steps to be taken by a portable information terminalbefore a desired target device among the one or more target devices isoperated simply because remote controllers for the one or more targetdevices are integrated into one, which requires a larger number ofprocess operations to be performed by a user.

Patent Document 2 described above describes only displaying the state ofeach target device, and does not describe at all remotely controllingoperation of each target device. Therefore, although the one or moretarget devices can be remotely monitored using one remote controller,the one or more target devices cannot be controlled.

In Patent Document 3 described above, open/close operation and the stateof an electric building material (such as a hallway door or a skylight)are remotely controlled and remotely monitored using a personalcomputer. However, the content of the remote control is just simplecontrol of open/close operation. In addition, as shown in FIG. 4B, anicon (21 b) is hidden by an operation screen (25). As the number oficons displayed on a floor plan (19 b) is increased, the number of iconshidden by the operation screen (25) is increased. In this case, in orderto search for the next icon that is different from the iconcorresponding to the current operation target, there are needed aninstruction and a process for temporarily erasing the operation screen(25). In particular, assuming that one or more operation targets areremotely operated using a common remote controller, integration into oneremote controller rather increases the number of operations to beperformed before a desired operation target is operated, which increasesthe time before the desired operation target is operated.

In Patent Document 4 described above, for example, only two icons,namely the icon representing the illumination and the icon representingthe digital image frame, are displayed. Moreover, an operation screenfor the illumination, or an operation screen for the digital imageframe, is displayed on the floor plan (FIG. 8B). In contrast to a casewhere only two icons, namely the icon representing the illumination andthe icon representing the digital image frame, are displayed, however,some icons may be hidden by the operation screen if an increasing numberof icons are displayed on the floor plan. Also in Patent Document 4described above, a part of the floor plan is covered by the operationscreen. Document 4 described above does not provide any solution as tohow to control display in the case where there is an icon in a roomcovered by the operation screen. Therefore, in the case where it isdesired to operate an icon hidden under the operation screen, anoperation for temporarily erasing the displayed operation screen isseparately performed, and thereafter the hidden icon is redisplayed toallow the redisplayed icon to be operated. This accordingly increasesthe number of process steps and the number of operations to be performedby the user before the desired icon is operated, which increases thetime before the desired operation target is operated. As a result,assuming that one or more operation targets are remotely operated usinga common remote controller, integration into one remote controllerrather incurs an erroneous operation when operating a desired operationtarget, which complicates the operation.

Patent Document 5 described above only considers controlling anillumination device for each room such as a bedroom, and does notconsider controlling illumination devices for each floor. For example,an illumination device in a room corresponding to a first target regionmay be turned on by moving an icon from the outside of the first targetregion to the inside of the first target region. However, when an iconis moved from the first target region to a second target region that isadjacent to the first target region, the icon is moved into the secondtarget region. Therefore, although an illumination device in a roomcorresponding to the second target region is turned on, an illuminationdevice in a room corresponding to the first target region is turned offsince the icon is moved out of the first target region. Consequently,Patent Document 5 described above does not consider a case where thereare two or more target regions on one floor.

Based on the considerations described above, the inventors haveconceived various aspects of the present disclosure to be describedbelow.

A control method according to an aspect of the present invention is acontrol method for an information apparatus having a display and beingconnected to a network, one or more target devices being controlled overthe network,

the control method causes a computer of the information apparatus to:

display a display screen representing a floor plan of a building on thedisplay, and display device icons representing the one or more targetdevices on the display screen representing the floor plan, the deviceicons being movable;

when selection of a device icon representing one target device, amongthe one or more target devices, is sensed in a region corresponding toone room included in the floor plan, display a control screen foroperating, or confirming a state of, the one target device correspondingto the sensed device icon on the display, and move the device iconsrepresenting the target devices installed in the one room out of adisplay region of the control screen; and

output a control command to the network on the basis of an operation onthe control screen, the control command allowing at least operation orthe state confirmation of the target device corresponding to the onetarget device.

In the aspect described above, in the case where the control screen foroperating or confirming the state of the target device is displayed asoverlapped on the display screen representing the floor plan, the deviceicons representing the target devices installed in the one room aremoved out of the display region of the control screen. Thus, none of thedevice icons representing the target devices installed in the one roomis hidden under the control screen. Therefore, there is no need for aninstruction for erasing the control screen in order to find the nextdesired device icon that is different from the one device icon. Thus, itis possible to reduce the number of process steps to be taken within theinformation apparatus and the number of operations to be performed bythe user in order to redisplay device icons representing target devicesafter an operation on the target device corresponding to the one deviceicon is once finished.

In addition, in the case where the next target device is operated afteran operation on the one target device is finished, another target devicedisposed in the same room as the room in which the one target device isdisposed is often operated. Thus, by moving the device iconsrepresenting the target devices installed in the one room out of thedisplay region of the control screen, it is possible to limit the numberof the moved device icons being displayed to the number of the targetdevices disposed in the same room as the room in which the one targetdevice is disposed. As a result, the possibility that the next desireddevice icon is included in the device icons moved out is increased, andthe number of the moved device icons being displayed is limited, whichmakes it easy to find the next desired device icon.

In the aspect described above, for example, display of the device iconsrepresenting the target devices installed in rooms other than the oneroom included in the floor plan may be erased.

In this case, not only the number of the target devices to be moved outof the display region of the control screen and being displayed but alsothe number of the device icons displayed on the display screen islimited, which further facilitates the work of finding the next desireddevice icon.

In the aspect described above, for example, the device iconsrepresenting the target devices installed in rooms other than the oneroom included in the floor plan may be displayed at unchanged displaypositions.

In this case, the target devices to be moved out of the display regionof the control screen and the device icons displayed on the displayscreen are distinguished from each other in display method, which alsofurther facilitates the work of finding the next desired device icon.

In the aspect described above, for example, the device iconsrepresenting the target devices installed in the one room may be movedto a location outside a region of the control screen and outside adisplay region of the display screen representing the floor plan.

In this case, the device icons representing the target devices installedin the one room are moved to a location outside the region of thecontrol screen and outside the display region of the display screenrepresenting the floor plan.

Consequently, display control in which the display region of the displayscreen and the region for retraction of the device icons installed inthe one room are separated is performed by moving the device icons to alocation outside the display region of the display screen representingthe floor plan in the case where the display size of the control screenis large, in the case where the number of the device icons installed inthe one room is large, or the like, for example. This facilitatesselecting a device icon corresponding to the next target device to becontrolled.

Thus, it is possible to reduce the operation interval from an operationon one target device to an operation on the next target device inremotely operating one or more target device using a common remotecontroller.

In the aspect described above, for example, the device iconsrepresenting the target devices installed in the one room may be movedto a location outside a region of the control screen and outside adisplay region of the display screen representing the floor plan, andarranged in one line outside the display region of the display screen.

In this case, the moved device icons are arranged orderly outside thedisplay region of the display screen, which allows the user to easilyfind the desired device icon.

In the aspect described above, for example, the device iconsrepresenting the target devices installed in the one room may be movedto a location outside a region of the control screen and outside adisplay region of the display screen representing the floor plan, andarranged in one line outside the display region of the display screen;and

the device icons representing the one or more target devices arranged inone line may be moved in a direction of the line to display the selecteddevice icon, within a display region of the display.

The display region of the display is limited in both the verticaldirection and the horizontal direction. Meanwhile, there may be a casewhere there are so large a number of device icons representing thetarget devices installed in the one room that all the device icons maynot be displayed in the display region of the display. In this case, thedevice icon, selection of which is sensed, may be hidden out of thedisplay region of the display.

According to the aspect, the device icons representing the targetdevices installed in the one room and arranged in one line are moved inthe direction of the line such that the device icon, selection of whichis sensed, is displayed within the display region of the display. Thisallows the device icon, selection of which is sensed, to stay within thedisplay region even in the case where the display region is saved. Thisprevents an erroneous operation due to disappearance of the device icon,selection of which is sensed, from the display region. This also reducesthe number of process steps to be taken within the information apparatusand the number of operations to be performed by the user to move thedevice icons, which are once hidden out of the display region, into thedisplay region again.

In the aspect described above, for example, the device iconsrepresenting the target devices installed in the one room may be movedto a location outside the display region of the control screen andaround the control screen.

The display region of the display is limited in both the verticaldirection and the horizontal direction. Meanwhile, there may be a casewhere there are so large a number of device icons representing thetarget devices installed in the one room that all the device icons maynot be displayed in the display region of the display. In this case, thedevice icon, selection of which is sensed, may be hidden out of thedisplay region of the display.

According to the aspect, the device icons representing the targetdevices installed in the one room are moved to a location outside thedisplay region of the control screen and around the control screen. Thisallows the display region for the device icons representing the targetdevices installed in the one room to be secured for the lengthcorresponding to the periphery of the control screen even in the casewhere there are a large number of device icons representing the targetdevices installed in the one room and the display region is saved. Thisprevents an erroneous operation due to disappearance of the device icon,selection of which is sensed, from the display region. This also reducesthe number of process steps to be taken within the information apparatusand the number of operations to be performed by the user to move thedevice icons, which are once hidden out of the display region, into thedisplay region again.

In the aspect described above, for example, the floor plan representedon the display screen may include information representing arrangementpositions at which the one or more target devices are arranged; and

the device icons representing the one or more target devices may bedisplayed at the corresponding arrangement positions of the one or moretarget devices included in the floor plan.

In this case, it is easy to discriminate to which target device in whichroom each device icon corresponds in the case where device iconsrepresenting one or more target devices are displayed in a floor planincluding two or more rooms, for example. As a result, an erroneousoperation in which a target device that is different from the intendedtarget device is operated is prevented.

In the aspect described above, for example, when selection of a deviceicon representing the one target device included in the floor plan issensed in a region corresponding to a room including informationrepresenting the arrangement position of the one target device, acontrol screen may be displayed on the display, the control screenallowing at least operation or the state confirmation of the one targetdevice in the room.

In this case, a control screen for controlling one target device in aroom is displayed by only sensing selection of the device iconrepresenting the one target device in a region corresponding to a roomincluding information representing the arrangement position of the onetarget device included in the floor plan. This allows the user toextremely easily designate which target device in which room is tocontrol. Therefore, it is easy to discriminate to which target device inwhich room each device icon corresponds in the case where device iconsrepresenting one or more target devices are displayed in a floor planincluding two or more rooms, for example. As a result, an erroneousoperation in which a target device that is different from the intendedtarget device is operated is prevented.

Through the process described above, it is possible to reduce both thenumber of processes to be performed within the information apparatus andthe number of operations to be performed by the user, reduce the timebefore a desired target device is operated, and prevent an erroneousoperation when remote controllers for the one or more target devices areintegrated into one.

In the aspect described above, for example, when the control screen isdisplayed on the display, the region corresponding to the room includingthe information representing the arrangement position of the one targetdevice may be displayed in a different display method from other regionscorresponding to other rooms.

In this case, the region corresponding to the room in which the onetarget device is disposed is displayed in a mode that is different fromthat for the other regions. This allows the user to make operation withpresence while being conscious of the arrangement position of the onetarget device.

In the aspect described above, for example, when the control screen isdisplayed on the display, the region corresponding to the room includingthe information representing the arrangement position of the one targetdevice may be displayed more brightly than the other regionscorresponding to other rooms.

In this case, the region corresponding to the room in which the onetarget device is disposed is displayed more brightly than the otherregions. This definitely informs the user of the region corresponding tothe room in which the one target device is disposed.

In the aspect described above, for example, when the control screen isdisplayed on the display, the display screen may be displayed moredarkly than the control screen.

In this case, the display screen is displayed more darkly than thecontrol screen. This emphasizes the control screen displayed asoverlapped on the display screen, which allows the user to definitelyrecognize the control screen.

In the aspect described above, for example, when contact between thedisplay and a predetermined object is sensed outside the region of thecontrol screen, display of the control screen may be erased, and thedisplay screen may be displayed with an original brightness.

In this case, the user can erase the control screen by performing anoperation of contacting the display. In addition, the control screenwhich has been displayed darkly is returned to its original brightnessalong with erasure of the control screen. This impresses the user withthe return from a state for operation of the target device to the normalstate.

In the aspect described above, for example, when selection of the samedevice icon as the selected device icon is sensed after the device iconsrepresenting the target devices installed in the one room are moved outof the display region of the control screen, display of the controlscreen may be erased.

In this case, when selection of the same device icon as the selecteddevice icon is sensed after control of, or confirmation of the state of,the target device through the control screen is finished, display of thecontrol screen is erased. This eliminates the need to provide anotheroperation icon for erasing display of the control screen. This makes itpossible to achieve a desired process of erasing display of the controlscreen while effectively exploiting the existing software resource.

In the aspect described above, for example, when selection of a deviceicon that is different from the selected device icon, among the deviceicons representing the target devices installed in the one room, issensed after the device icons representing the target devices installedin the one room are moved out of the display region of the controlscreen, display of a control screen corresponding to the differentdevice icon may be displayed.

In this case, in causing another display screen to be displayed while acertain control screen is displayed, the user can switch the controlscreen with one touch operation without inputting an operation oferasing the control screen.

In the aspect described above, for example, when selection of a locationoutside the display region of the control screen is sensed after thedevice icons representing the target devices installed in the one roomare moved out of the display region of the control screen, display ofthe control screen may be erased.

In this case, display of the control screen is erased when selection ofa location outside the display region of the control screen is sensedafter control of, or confirmation of the state of, the target devicethrough the control screen is finished. This eliminates the need toprovide another operation icon for erasing display of the controlscreen. This makes it possible to achieve a desired process of erasingdisplay of the control screen while effectively exploiting the existingsoftware resource.

In the aspect described above, for example, the moved device icons maybe moved to original positions of the moved device icons when display ofthe control screen is erased.

In this case, the device icons are moved to the original positionsthereof along with erasure of the control screen. This impresses theuser with the return from a state for operation of the target device tothe normal state.

In the aspect described above, for example, display of the selecteddevice icon among the moved device icons, may be displayed asdistinguished from display of the non-selected device icons.

This facilitates discriminating which device icon is selected even afterthe device icons representing the one or more target devices are moved,for example. This prevents an erroneous operation in which the sametarget device as the target device that is currently operated isselected again.

In the aspect described above, for example, a device icon representing atarget device that is incommunicable with the information apparatus,among the device icons representing the one or more target devices, maybe displayed more darkly than display of other device icons.

In this case, it is possible to easily discriminate a target device thatcannot be operated from the information apparatus. This prevents anerroneous operation in which the target device that cannot be operatedfrom the information apparatus is mistaken for a target device that canbe operated from the information apparatus to be operated.

In the aspect described above, for example, a device icon representing atarget device that is incommunicable with the information apparatus,among the device icons representing the one or more target devices, maybe displayed translucently.

In this case, it is possible to easily discriminate a target device thatcannot be operated from the information apparatus. This prevents anerroneous operation in which the target device that cannot be operatedfrom the information apparatus is mistaken for a target device that canbe operated from the information apparatus to be operated.

In the aspect described above, for example, the display may be a touchpanel display; and selection of the device icon may be sensed by sensinga tap on the device icon performed on the touch panel display.

In this case, the user can select the device icon through a simpleoperation of tapping on the device icon.

In the aspect described above, for example, selection of the device iconmay be sensed by sensing a click with a mouse pointer.

In this case, the user can select the device icon through a simpleoperation of clicking on the device icon.

In the aspect described above, the information apparatus may beconnected to a cloud system that manages log information related to ause history of the one or more target devices;

a control command for confirming the state of the corresponding targetdevice may be output to the cloud system via the network; and

the control method may cause the computer of the information apparatusto:

receive information indicating the state of the corresponding targetdevice from the cloud system via the network; and

display the information indicating the state of the corresponding targetdevice on a control screen for confirming the state of the correspondingtarget device.

In this case, the user can confirm the state of the target devicemanaged by the cloud system by inputting a control command from thecontrol screen.

In the aspect described above, for example, the information representingthe arrangement positions of the one or more target devices compriseimages representing the one or more target devices.

In this case, it is possible for the information apparatus to specifythe arrangement position of the target device by recognizing the imagerepresenting the target device represented on the floor plan using animage recognition technology, for example. As a result, the informationapparatus can dispose the device icon at an appropriate position on thefloor plan without causing the user to input the display position of thedevice icon on the floor plan.

In the aspect described above, for example, the information representingthe arrangement positions of the one or more target devices comprisetext information representing the one or more target devices.

In this case, it is possible for the information apparatus to specifythe arrangement position of the target device by recognizing the textinformation for the target device represented on the floor plan using acharacter recognition technology, for example. As a result, theinformation apparatus can dispose the device icon at an appropriateposition on the floor plan without causing the user to input the displayposition of the device icon on the floor plan.

In the aspect described above, for example, the sensed device icon,among the device icons representing the target devices installed in theone room, may not be included in the device icons to be moved out of thedisplay region of the control screen.

In this case, device icons other than the sensed device icon, among thedevice icons representing the target devices installed in the one room,are moved out of the display region of the control screen. In the casewhere the next target device is operated after an operation on the onetarget device is finished, another target device disposed in the sameroom as the room in which the target device corresponding to the onedevice icon is disposed is often operated. In the case where the nexttarget device is operated after an operation on the one target device isfinished, meanwhile, it is considered to be relatively rare that the onedevice icon is selected again to operate the one target device again.Thus, by moving device icons other than the sensed device icon, amongthe device icons representing the target devices installed in the oneroom, excluding the device icon representing the one target device, outof the display region of the control screen, it is possible to limit thenumber of the moved device icons being displayed to the number of thetarget devices disposed in the same room as the room in which the targetdevice corresponding to the one device icon is disposed. As a result,the possibility that the next desired device icon is included in thedevice icons moved out is increased, and the number of the moved deviceicons being displayed is limited, which makes it easy to find the nextdesired device icon.

In the aspect described above, for example,

when selection of a location outside the display region of the controlscreen is sensed after device icons other than the sensed device icon,among the device icons representing the target devices installed in theone room, are moved out of the display region of the control screen,display of the control screen may be erased.

In the aspect described above, for example,

the moved device icons may be moved to original positions of the moveddevice icons when display of the control screen is erased.

(The Present Disclosure)

The present disclosure will be described below with reference to thedrawings. In the drawings, the same symbols are used for the sameconstituent elements.

In the present disclosure, a home controller which can singly controlone or more devices will be described.

(Overall Configuration)

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a home controlsystem to which a home controller according to the present disclosure isapplied. As shown in FIG. 1, the home control system includes a homecontroller 100, a device 200 (an example of a target device), and aserver 300.

The home controller 100 and one or more devices 200 (for example, adevice A 200 and a device B 200) are disposed in a house. The server 300is disposed in a cloud center. The home controller 100, the device 200,and the server 300 communicate with each other via a wired or wirelessnetwork. For example, the device 200 and the home controller 100 arecommunicably connected to each other via a wireless or wired in-homenetwork, and the home controller 100, the device 200, and the server 300are communicably connected to each other via an external network such asthe Internet.

The home controller 100 is not necessarily disposed in the house, andmay be disposed outside the house. In this case, a user controls the oneor more devices 200 from a location away from the home.

A portable information terminal such as a smartphone or a tabletterminal may be adopted as the home controller 100. It should be noted,however, that the smartphone and the tablet terminal are merelyexemplary, and a portable information terminal of a button type such asa cellular phone may be adopted as the home controller 100.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the main devices 200 to be controlled by thehome controller 100. The home controller 100 controls the devices 200such as an air conditioner 201, illumination devices 202 and 203, a bath204, a refrigerator 205, a washing machine 206, a toilet 207, and acurtain 208. The devices 200 to be controlled by the home controller 100may include a plurality of devices 200 of the same type such as theillumination devices 202 and 203.

The devices 200 such as the air conditioner 201 shown in FIG. 2 aremerely exemplary, and a television set, a Blu-ray recorder, an audiodevice, and so forth may be adopted as the devices 200. That is, anyelectrical device that functions to communicate with the home controller100 may be adopted as the device 200. In FIG. 2, electrical devices foruse in ordinary households are shown as the devices 200. However, thepresent disclosure is not limited thereto, and office devices for use inoffices or the like may be adopted as the devices 200. Examples of theoffice devices include a printer, a personal computer, a scanner, and acopy machine.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the homecontroller 100, the device 200, and the server 300. As shown in FIG. 3,the home controller 100 includes a display 101, a touch panel controlsection 102, a display control section 103, a storage section 104, adevice management section 105, a device control section 106, and acommunication control section 107.

The display 101 is formed from a touch panel display, for example, anddisplays a user interface that allows the user to operate the homecontroller 100. The user can input various operations to the homecontroller 100 by contacting the display 101.

The touch panel control section 102 recognizes an operation performed onthe display 101 by the user, interprets the content of the operation,and notifies the other constituent elements of the content of theoperation. For example, if an object is displayed at a position on thedisplay 101 tapped on by the user, the touch panel control section 102determines that the object is selected by the user. A variety of GUIparts that receive a user operation such as buttons are adopted as theobject.

The display control section 103 generates a GUI (Graphical UserInterface) of the home controller 100, and causes the display 101 todisplay the GUI. The storage section 104 stores information that isnecessary for operation of the home controller 100 such as a device listmanaged by the device management section 105.

The device management section 105 manages the control target devices 200using the device list stored in the storage section 104. In addition,the device management section 105 detects a device 200 when the device200 is connected to the in-home network. Further, the device managementsection 105 acquires home information 2700 to be discussed later fromthe server 300, stores the acquired home information 2700 in the storagesection 104, and manages the home information 2700. The device controlsection 106 issues a control command for the devices 200. Thecommunication control section 107 controls communication between thehome controller 100 and the devices 200 and communication between thehome controller 100 and the server 300. In addition, the communicationcontrol section 107 transmits a variety of data to the devices 200 orthe server 300 upon receiving a request to transmit such data from otherblocks, and receives data transmitted from the devices 200 or the server300 to deliver the data to the relevant block.

The display 101 may be a normal display rather than a touch paneldisplay. In this case, the user may use an external input device such asa mouse (not shown) to input an instruction to select an object bymoving a pointer displayed on the display 101 and clicking on a desiredobject. That is, in the present disclosure, a series of operationsperformed by the user by contacting the display 101 may be replaced withoperations of moving a pointer and clicking using an external inputdevice such as a mouse.

As shown in FIG. 3, the device 200 includes a control execution section211, a state management section 212, a storage section 214, and acommunication control section 217. The control execution section 211receives a control command from the home controller 100 or the server300, and controls the device 200 in accordance with the received controlcommand. The content of control of the device 200 performed by thecontrol execution section 211 differs in accordance with the type of thedevice 200. For example, if the device 200 is an illumination device,the control execution section 211 turns on and off the illuminationdevice. In addition, the control execution section 211 transmits theresult of execution of the control command and the state of the device200 to the home controller 100 or the server 300.

The state management section 212 manages the state of the device 200.The content of management of the device 200 performed by the statemanagement section 212 differs in accordance with the type of the device200. For example, if the device 200 is an illumination device, the statemanagement section 212 manages whether the illumination device iscurrently turned on or turned off. The storage section 214 storesinformation related to the state of the device 200 managed by the statemanagement section 212. The communication control section 217 controlscommunication between the device 200 and the home controller 100 andcommunication between the device 200 and the server 300. In addition,the communication control section 217 transmits a variety of data to thehome controller 100 or the server 300 upon receiving a request totransmit such data from other blocks, and receives data transmitted fromthe home controller 100 or the server 300 to deliver the data to therelevant block.

As shown in FIG. 3, the server 300 includes a home informationmanagement section 301, a device control section 302, a storage section304, and a communication control section 307. The home informationmanagement section 301 manages the home information 2700 to be discussedlater for each house or each user account. In addition, the homeinformation management section 301 transmits the home information 2700to the home controller 100 in response to a request from the homecontroller 100. Further, the home information management section 301acquires log information related to the use history of the device 200and information related to the state of the device 200 from the device200, stores the acquired information in the storage section 304, andmanages the information.

The device control section 302 transmits a control command to the device200 in response to a request from the home controller 100. The storagesection 304 stores information that is necessary for operation of theserver 300 such as the home information 2700 and the information relatedto the state of the device 200 managed by the home informationmanagement section 301. The communication control section 307 controlscommunication between the server 300 and the home controller 100 andcommunication between the server 300 and the device 200 as with thecommunication control section 107. In addition, the communicationcontrol section 307 transmits a variety of data to the home controller100 or the device 200 upon receiving a request to transmit such datafrom other blocks, and receives data transmitted from the homecontroller 100 or the device 200 to deliver the data to the relevantblock.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of the form ofimplementation of the home controller 100. As shown in FIG. 4, the homecontroller 100 includes an application 401, an OS (Operating System)402, a memory 403, and other hardware (not shown).

The application 401 is application software for causing the portableinformation terminal to function as the home controller 100, and isexecuted by a processor of the home controller 100. The home controller100 may read the application 401 from a computer readable recordingmedium to implement the application 401, or may download the application401 from a network to implement the application 401. The OS 402 is basicsoftware of the portable information terminal, and is executed by theprocessor of the home controller 100. The memory 403 is formed from astorage device such as a RAM and a ROM of the home controller 100, andstores a group of data included in the application 401. The processor ofthe home controller 100 executes the application 401 to embody thefunctions of the touch panel control section 102, the display controlsection 103, the storage section 104, the device management section 105,the device control section 106, and the communication control section107 shown in FIG. 3. In addition, the processor of the home controller100 executes the application 401 to cause the memory 403 to function asthe storage section 104.

It should be noted, however, that in the present disclosure, the homecontroller 100 may be implemented by the application 401 alone, may beimplemented by the application 401 and the OS 402, may be implemented bythe application 401, the OS 402, and the memory 403, or may beimplemented by the application 401, the OS 402, the memory 403, andother hardware (not shown). In any present disclosure, the homecontroller 100 according to the present disclosure can be embodied. Inthe present disclosure, the processor and the storage device forming theportable information terminal, for example, form a computer. One of aCPU, an FPGA, and an ASIC or a combination of two or more of these maybe adopted as the processor. One of a ROM, a RAM, and a hard disk or acombination of two or more of these may be adopted as the storagedevice.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the configuration of a basic screen of thehome controller 100. As shown in FIG. 5, the basic screen of the homecontroller 100 displayed on the display 101 include a floor plan 500,device icons 501, and a device list display change button 503. The floorplan 500 is a plan view that planarly represents the arrangement and theshape of one or more rooms forming each floor of a house. In the casewhere the house has one or more floors, the floor plan 500 is preparedfor each floor. For example, in the case where the house has two floors,two floor plans 500, namely a floor plan 601 for the first floor and afloor plan 602 for the second floor, are displayed on the display 101 asshown in FIG. 6.

The device icon 501 is an icon displayed as overlapped on the floor plan500 and representing the device 200. When the touch panel controlsection 102 senses a tap on the device icon 501 performed by the user,the display control section 103 causes the display 101 to display adevice control screen 502 to be discussed later. This allows the user tocontrol the device 200 by operating the device control screen 502.

The device icon 501 is prepared for each device 200. The display controlsection 103 disposes the device icon 501 on the floor plan 500 on thebasis of the actual arrangement of the device 200 within the house.Information as to at what position on the floor plan 500 the device icon501 is to be disposed is registered in an arrangement 3104 of a devicelist 3100 to be discussed later. Here, a position on the floor plan 500corresponding to the actual arrangement position of the device 200 isregistered in the arrangement 3104. Thus, the display control section103 can dispose the device icon 501 at a position on the floor plan 500corresponding to the actual arrangement position of the device 200 bydisposing the device icon 501 at the position registered in thearrangement 3104 of the device list 3100.

In the floor plan 500 shown in FIG. 5, one floor is partitioned into aplurality of rooms by partition lines that indicate partitions betweenthe rooms. This allows the user to recognize what device 200 is disposedin what room at a glance.

In the example of FIG. 5, in addition, schematic images of furniturepieces are displayed at positions on the floor plan 500 corresponding tothe actual arrangement positions of the furniture pieces. An image thatindicates the movable range of a door is displayed at a position on thefloor plan 500 corresponding to the actual arrangement position of thedoor. An image of a staircase is displayed at a position on the floorplan 500 corresponding to the actual arrangement position of thestaircase. This allows the user to recognize the positions of thefurniture pieces disposed in each room and the positions of thestaircase and the doors on the floor.

The button with a text “TO LIST UI” displayed at the lower right of thebasic screen is the device list display change button 503, which is abutton for switching the screen display from the basic screen to adevice list display screen to be discussed later (see FIG. 24). When thetouch panel control section 102 senses a tap on the device list displaychange button 503 performed by the user, the display control section 103switches the screen display on the display 101 from the basic screen tothe device list display screen. It should be noted, however, that thedisplay control section 103 may hide the device list display changebutton 503 in the case where a registration is made in the homecontroller 100 in advance that the device list display screen is notutilized.

In the foregoing description, one device icon 501 is correlated with onedevice 200. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, andone device icon 501 may be correlated with a plurality of devices 200 sothat the one device icon 501 may be used in common to the plurality ofdevices 200. For example, in the case where there are two illuminationdevices in a living room, the two illumination devices may berepresented by one device icon 501.

In this case, when the device icon 501 representing the two illuminationdevices is tapped on by the user, the display control section 103 causesthe display 101 to display a device control screen 502 that allowssimultaneous control of the two illumination devices. This allows theuser to control the two illumination devices at the same time. Aplurality of illumination devices are often disposed in a large roomsuch as the living room. In the case where the user turns on or off theillumination devices in the living room, the user often turns on or offall the illumination devices disposed in the living room, rather thanturning on or off some of the illumination devices. In this case, if itis possible to collectively turn on or off all the illumination devices,the number of operations to be performed by the user can be reduced.Thus, one device icon 501 may be correlated with a plurality of devices200 that are highly likely to be operated by the user at the same timeto cause one device control screen 502 to be displayed.

In the case where the device icon 501 represents a plurality of devices200, the display control section 103 may display the device icon 501 ata position on the floor plan 500 corresponding to the actual arrangementposition of one of the devices 200. Alternatively, the display controlsection 103 may display the device icon 501 representing the pluralityof devices 200 at a predetermined location of a room in which theplurality of devices 200 are disposed.

In order to dispose the device icon 501 on the floor plan 500 on thebasis of the actual arrangement of the device 200 within the house, theuser moves the device icon 501 to an appropriate position on the floorplan 500. The user can move the device icon 501 to a desired position bydragging the device icon 501 while holding down the device icon 501.These operations are executed at the timing when the device icon 501 isadded such as when the home controller 100 is initially utilized andwhen a new device 200 is purchased.

Specifically, when the touch panel control section 102 senses a drag onthe device icon 501, the device management section 105 registers theposition on the floor plan 500 of the device icon 501 after the movementin the arrangement 3104 of the device list 3100 to be discussed later.This allows a position on the floor plan 500 corresponding to the actualarrangement position of the device 200 to be registered in thearrangement 3104.

The initial display position of the device icon 501 may be determined inadvance by the system, and may be a predetermined position outside thedisplay region of the floor plan 500 or a predetermined position withina predetermined room on the floor plan 500, for example. The method ofdisposing the device icon 501 on the floor plan 500 on the basis of theactual arrangement of the device 200 within the house is not limitedthereto, and the method described below may be used.

As shown in FIGS. 7, 8, and 9, some floor plans 500 include arrangementinformation for the device icons 501. For example, in the example of thefloor plan 500 of FIG. 7, texts that indicate the type of the devices200 represented by the device icons 501 to be disposed are provided atpositions at which the device icons 501 are to be disposed. In theexample of the floor plan 500 of FIG. 8, images that indicate the typeof the devices 200 represented by the device icons 501 to be disposedare provided at positions at which the device icons 501 are to bedisposed. In the example of the floor plan 500 of FIG. 9, simplifiedimages such as circles and rectangles that indicate the type of thedevices 200 represented by the device icons 501 to be disposed areprovided at positions at which the device icons 501 are to be disposed.

Consequently, in the case where the floor plan 500 includes arrangementinformation for the device icons 501, the display control section 103may generate the basic screen of FIG. 5 by automatically disposing thedevice icons 501 on the floor plan 500 on the basis of the arrangementinformation included in the floor plan 500. In this case, it is notnecessary for the user to perform an operation of moving the deviceicons 501 to appropriate positions on the floor plan 500.

For example, in an exemplary floor plan 4401 for the first floor of FIG.7, the display control section 103 detects a position provided with atext “TELEVISION SET”, automatically disposes the device icon 501 forthe television set at the detected position, and registers the detectedposition in the arrangement 3104 of the device list 3100.

In an exemplary floor plan 4501 for the first floor of FIG. 8, thedisplay control section 103 detects a position provided with an imagefor the “television set”, automatically disposes the device icon 501 forthe television set at the detected position, and registers the detectedposition in the arrangement 3104 of the device list 3100. In anexemplary floor plan 4601 for the first floor of FIG. 9, the displaycontrol section 103 detects a position provided with an image in theshape of a “circle filled with oblique lines”, automatically disposesthe device icon 501 for the television set at the detected position, andregisters the detected position in the arrangement 3104 of the devicelist 3100.

The display control section 103 may detect the display position ofarrangement information by recognizing the arrangement informationincluded in the floor plan 500 using a text recognition technology or animage recognition technology commonly utilized.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a method of switching the floordisplay on the basic screen of the home controller 100. FIG. 10illustrates a case where the house has two floors, namely the firstfloor and the second floor. With a floor plan 601 for the first floordisplayed on the basic screen of the home controller 100, the touchpanel control section 102 senses a tap on a staircase region 603 on thefirst floor performed by the user. Then, the display control section 103switches the floor display on the basic screen from the first floor tothe second floor. Similarly, with a floor plan 602 for the second floordisplayed on the basic screen of the home controller 100, the touchpanel control section 102 senses a tap on a staircase region 604 on thesecond floor performed by the user. Then, the display control section103 switches the floor display on the basic screen from the second floorto the first floor.

Here, the touch panel control section 102 may judge that the staircaseregion 603 is tapped on if the position tapped on by the user ispositioned within a region surrounded by four vertexes of a staircaseregistered in a room type 2902 of room information 2900 (see FIG. 32).

Further, the floor display may be switched by not only tapping on thestaircase region 603 but also a swipe operation on the display 101. Withthe floor plan 601 for the first floor displayed on the basic screen ofthe home controller 100, the touch panel control section 102 senses aswipe operation performed from the right to the left on the display 101by the user. Then, the display control section 103 switches the floordisplay on the basic screen from the first floor to the second floor.Similarly, with the floor plan 602 for the second floor displayed on thebasic screen of the home controller 100, the touch panel control section102 senses a swipe operation performed from the left to the right on thedisplay 101 by the user. Then, the display control section 103 switchesthe floor display on the basic screen from the second floor to the firstfloor. The floor display may be switched by a swipe operation in thevertical direction.

FIG. 11A is a diagram showing the configuration of the display state ofthe device control screen 502 of the home controller 100. In the basicscreen shown in FIG. 5, when the touch panel control section 102 sensesthat the user selects the device icon 501, the display control section103 causes the display 101 to display the device control screen 502corresponding to the selected device icon 501. The device control screen502 is a control screen that is specific to each device 200 and thatallows control or confirmation of the state of the device 200. Forexample, in FIG. 11A, a device icon 801 for the air conditioner isselected by the user, and the temperature setting and the air flowdirection are controlled using the device control screen 502 for the airconditioner.

An image of the air conditioner is displayed in the device controlscreen 502 to allow the user to immediately recognize that the devicecontrol screen 502 corresponds to the air conditioner. This prevents anerroneous operation. An image that indicates the air flow direction isdisplayed on the lower side of the image of the air conditioner to allowthe user to select a desired air flow direction by repeatedly tapping onthe image, for example. A numeral displayed within the device controlscreen 502 indicates the current set temperature of the air conditioner.A button in the shape of a triangle that points upward in the devicecontrol screen 502 is a temperature increase button. A button in theshape of a triangle that points downward is a temperature decreasebutton. Pressing the temperature increase button once increases the settemperature of the air conditioner by a predetermined temperature (forexample, 0.5 degrees). Pressing the temperature decrease button oncedecreases the set temperature of the air conditioner by a predeterminedtemperature (for example, 0.5 degrees).

Examples of the method of disposing the device icons 501 in the displaystate of the device control screen 502 include the following methods.

A first method is to dispose the device icons 501 outside the displayregion of the device control screen 502 as shown in FIG. 11A. The touchpanel control section 102 senses that a certain device icon 501 istapped on by the user. Then, the display control section 103 disposesthe device icon 501 tapped on and the device icons 501 disposed in thesame room region on the floor plan 500 as the device icon 501 atlocations outside the display region of the device control screen 502and inside the display region of the display 101 irrespective of whetheror not the locations are inside the display region of the floor plan500. In this case, the display control section 103 erases all the deviceicons 501 disposed in room regions that are different from the roomregion in which the device icon 501 tapped on is disposed.

In the example of FIG. 11A, the device icon 501 tapped on is a deviceicon 501 disposed in the room region of the living room, and the deviceicons 501 for the television set, the illumination device, and therefrigerator are disposed in the room region of the living room besidesthe device icon 501 for the air conditioner. Therefore, the displaycontrol section 103 disposes the device icons 501 for the airconditioner, the television set, the illumination device, and therefrigerator, which are disposed in the room region of the living room,in an elliptical arrangement so as to surround the device control screen502.

That is, when a certain device icon 501 is selected by the user and thedevice control screen 502 for the device 200 corresponding to the deviceicon 501 is displayed, the display control section 103 retracts theselected device icon 501 and the device icons 501 disposed in the sameroom region on the floor plan 500 as the device icon 501 out of thedisplay region of the device control screen 502.

This prevents the selected device icon 501 and the device icons 501disposed in the same room region as the device icon 501 from beinghidden by the device control screen 502. Therefore, in the case wherethe device control screen 502 for a device 200 is currently displayedand the user attempts to cause the device control screen 502 for adevice 200 disposed in the same room as the device 200 to be displayed,it is not necessary for the user to temporarily erase the currentlydisplayed device control screen 502 and search for the device icon 501for the relevant device 200.

In addition, since only the device icons 501 disposed in the same roomregion as the room region in which the device icon 501 selected by theuser is disposed are retracted, it is possible to display on the displayscreen only the device icons 501 representing devices 200 that arehighly likely to be operated after an operation on the device 200represented by the selected device icon 501 is finished. This allows theuser to immediately find the device icon 501 for the device 200 to beoperated next from the display screen. Further, since the device icons501 disposed in room regions that are different from the selected roomregion are erased from the display screen, the number of the deviceicons 501 displayed on the display screen is limited, which furtherfacilitates the work of finding the device icon 501 for the device 200to be operated next.

Here, the display control section 103 may decide the arrangementposition of each device icon 501 on the outer periphery of an ellipsehaving a shape determined in advance in accordance with the size of thedevice control screen 502, and dispose the device icon 501 at thedecided position, for example. Examples of the method of deciding thearrangement position include a method of arranging all the device icons501 disposed in the same room region as the selected device icon 501 atequal intervals on the outer periphery of an ellipse, and a method ofdisposing the device icons 501 such that the angles formed by linesconnecting between adjacent device icons 501 and the center of anellipse are equal to each other. Alternatively, the display controlsection 103 may divide the outer periphery of an ellipse into twosections corresponding to the upper and lower or left and right portionsof the device control screen 502, and dispose the device icons 501 suchthat the number of device icons 501 in each section is the same and thedevice icons 501 in each section are arranged at equal intervals. Thedevice icon 501 disposed at the closest position on the floor plan 500may be disposed at the decided arrangement position.

In the case where device icons 501 other than the selected device icon501 are not disposed in the same room region as the selected device icon501, the display control section 103 may dispose device icons 501 at apredetermined position outside the region of the device control screen502, for example. Here, examples of the predetermined position include aposition on the vertical line passing through the center of the devicecontrol screen 502 and slightly above or slightly below the devicecontrol screen 502. Examples of the predetermined position also includea position on the horizontal line passing through the center of thedevice control screen 502 and slightly on the left side or slightly onthe right side of the device control screen 502.

In the foregoing description, the device icons 501 are arranged in anelliptical arrangement. However, the present disclosure is not limitedthereto, and the device icons 501 may be arranged in a circulararrangement. Also in this case, the arrangement position of the deviceicons 501 may be decided using the same method as in the case where thedevice icons 501 are arranged in an elliptical arrangement. Otherexamples of the shape of arrangement of the device icons 501 used whenthe device icons 501 are retracted out of the display region of thedevice control screen 502 include polygonal arrangements such astriangular, rectangular, and pentagonal arrangements.

In the example of FIG. 11A, the selected device icon 501 for the airconditioner is also retracted so as to surround the device controlscreen 502 as with the device icons 501 disposed in the room region ofthe living room. It should be noted, however, that this is merelyexemplary, and only the device icons 501 disposed in the same roomregion as the selected device icon 501 may be retracted and the selecteddevice icon 501 may be erased from the screen as shown in FIG. 11B.

In the example of FIG. 11B, the device icon 501 for the air conditioneris selected as in FIG. 11 A, and therefore the display control section103 displays the device control screen 502 for the air conditioner asoverlapped on the floor plan 500, and the selected device icon 501 forthe air conditioner is erased from the screen. That is, in the exampleof FIG. 11B, only the device icons 501 for the television set, theillumination device, and the refrigerator, which are disposed in theroom region of the living room in which the selected device icon 501 forthe air conditioner is disposed, are retracted outside the displayregion of the device control screen 502, and the device icon 501 for theair conditioner is erased from the screen.

A second method is to dispose the device icons 501 in one line outsidethe display region of the device control screen 502 and the floor plan500 and inside the display region of the display 101 as shown in FIG.13. When the touch panel control section 102 senses that a certaindevice icon 501 is tapped on by the user, the display control section103 disposes all the device icons 501 disposed in the same room regionas the device icon 501 tapped on in one vertical line on the left sideof the display region of the floor plan 500. In this case, the displaycontrol section 103 may erase the device icons 501 disposed in roomregions that are different from the room region in which the device icon501 tapped on is disposed from the display screen.

In the example of FIG. 13, before the device icon 501 for the airconditioner is tapped on, the device icons 501 for the television set,the refrigerator, and the illumination device are disposed besides thedevice icon 501 for the air conditioner in the room region of the livingroom in which the device icon 501 for the air conditioner is disposed.Therefore, in the example of FIG. 13, the device icons 501 for the airconditioner, the television set, the refrigerator, and the illuminationdevice are displayed in one vertical line on the left side of thedisplay region of the floor plan 500. In addition, in the example ofFIG. 13, the device icons 501 disposed in room regions that aredifferent from the room region of the living room have been erased fromthe floor plan 500 so that all the device icons 501 have been erasedfrom the floor plan 500.

That is, the display control section 103 retracts all the device icons501 disposed in the same room region as the device icon 501 tapped on toa vacant space outside the display region of the floor plan 500 andinside the display region of the display 101. This allows only thedevice icons 501 for devices 200 that are highly likely to be operatedby the user to be displayed in one vertical line on the left side of thedisplay region of the floor plan 500, which allows the user toimmediately find the device icon 501 for the device 200 to be operatednext. In addition, since all the device icons 501 are erased from thefloor plan 500, it is possible to simplify display control for thedevice icons 501, and to strongly impress the user with the presence ofthe device control screen 502.

In the example of FIG. 13, the device icon 501 for the air conditionertapped on is also retracted in one vertical line on the left side of thedisplay region of the floor plan 500 as with the device icons 501disposed in the room region of the living room. It should be noted,however, that this is merely exemplary, and the display control section103 may erase the device icon 501 tapped on from the display 101, anddisplay only the device icons disposed in the same room region as thedevice icon 501 tapped on in one vertical line on the left side of thedisplay region of the floor plan 500. That is, in the example of FIG.13, only the device icons 501 for the television set, the refrigerator,and the illumination device may be displayed in one vertical line on theleft side of the display region of the floor plan 500.

In FIG. 13, the device icons 501 are disposed on the left side of thefloor plan 500. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto,and the device icons 501 may be disposed in one vertical line on theright side of the floor plan 500, or may be disposed in one horizontalline on the upper or lower side of the floor plan 500.

In addition, in the case where all the device icons 501 disposed in thesame room region as the device icon 501 tapped on may not be displayedon the left side of the floor plan 500, the display control section 103may scroll the device icons 501 upward or downward in accordance with aswipe operation performed upward or downward on the device icons 501disposed in one vertical line on the left side to cause the device icons501, which have been hidden, to be displayed within the display 101.

This allows the device icons 501, which have been hidden, to bedisplayed within the display 101 to allow the user to select the deviceicons 501. In the case where the device icons 501 are displayed in onehorizontal line and all the device icons 501 disposed in the same roomregion as the device icon 501 tapped on may not be displayed, thedisplay control section 103 may scroll the device icons 501 leftward orrightward in accordance with a swipe operation performed leftward orrightward on the device icons 501 disposed in one horizontal line tocause the device icons 501, which have been hidden, to be displayedwithin the display 101.

In the example of FIG. 13, in displaying the device control screen 502,the display control section 103 erases all the device icons 501 disposedin room regions that are different from the room region in which thedevice icon 501 tapped on is disposed. However, this is merelyexemplary. For example, as shown in FIG. 14, the display control section103 may cause the device icons 501 disposed in room regions that aredifferent from the room region in which the device icon 501 tapped on isdisposed to remain. In the example of FIG. 14, the device icons 501 forthe air conditioner, the television set, the refrigerator, and theillumination device, which have been disposed in the room region of theliving room, are erased from the floor plan 500, and displayed in onevertical line on the left side of the display region of the floor plan500. On the other hand, the device icons 501 disposed in all the roomregions other than the living room are not erased, but kept displayed asoverlapped on the floor plan 500. In this case, since only the deviceicons 501 disposed in the same room region as the device icon 501 tappedon by the user are erased from the floor plan 500, it is possible toallow the user to immediately recognize what room region on the floorplan 500 the device icon 501 tapped on is disposed in.

In the display state of the device control screen 502, the displaycontrol section 103 may display the device icon 501 selected by the userin a display mode that is different from that for the unselected deviceicons 501. This allows the user to easily recognize the selected deviceicon 501.

For example, as shown in FIG. 11A, the display control section 103 maydisplay the selected device icon 801 in a color that is different fromthat of the other unselected device icons 501. Specifically, the displaycontrol section 103 may display a background portion of the selecteddevice icon 501 in a color that is different from that of backgroundportions of the unselected device icons 501. It should be noted,however, that such a display mode is merely exemplary, and the displaycontrol section 103 may make the selected device icon 501 brighter thanthe unselected device icons 501, may make the selected device icon 501denser than the unselected device icons 501, or may cause the selecteddevice icon 501 to flash on and off at a constant cycle.

In the display state of the device control screen 502, the device icon501 selected by the user may be disposed as distinguished from theunselected device icons 501. This allows the user to easily recognizethe selected device icon 501.

For example, as shown in FIG. 12, the display control section 103 maydispose a selected device icon 901 at the uppermost position on theouter periphery of an ellipse. Besides, for example, the display controlsection 103 may dispose the selected device icon 501 at a particularposition (for example, the lowermost position, the rightmost position,or the leftmost position) on the outer periphery of an ellipse. In anyevent, the display control section 103 may dispose the device icon 501selected by the user at a particular location that is easilyrecognizable by the user.

Besides, for example, in the case where there are so large a number ofdevice icons to be retracted that all the device icons may not bedisplayed on the display 101 at a time, the display control section 103may scroll an array of the device icons 501 such that a selected deviceicon 1101 is disposed within the display region of the display 101. Inaddition, as shown in FIG. 15, the device icons 501 may be displayedsuch that the selected device icon 1101 is disposed at the center of aline of icons displayed in one vertical line on the left side of thefloor plan 500. This allows the user to easily recognize the selecteddevice icon 501. Although the device icon 1101 is disposed at the centerof the line of icons in FIG. 15, the device icon 1101 may be disposed atany other conspicuous position. For example, the device icon 1101 may bedisposed at the top or bottom position of the line of icons.

For example, the order of arrangement of the device icons 501 taken whenthe device icons 501 are retracted out of the display region of thefloor plan 500 may be determined such that device icons 501 that arecloser in position of arrangement on the floor plan 500 to the deviceicon 501 selected by the user, among the device icons 501 disposed inthe same room region as the device icon 501 selected by the user, aredisposed to be closer in order of arrangement to the device icon 501selected by the user. Alternatively, the order of arrangement of thedevice icons 501 may be determined such that device icons 501 fordevices 200 that are more likely to be used together with the device 200represented by the device icon 501 selected by the user, among thedevice icons 501 disposed in the same room region as the device icon 501selected by the user, are disposed to be closer in order of arrangementto the device icon 501 selected by the user. For example, the televisionset and the Blu-ray recorder are highly likely to be used together bythe user. Therefore, when the device icon 501 for the television set isselected by the user, the device icon 501 for the Blu-ray recorder maybe displayed next to the device icon 501 for the television set. Inorder to embody such a configuration, a table that indicatescombinations of devices 200 that are highly likely to be used togethermay be stored in advance in the storage section 104, and the displaycontrol section 103 may decide the arrangement of the device icons 501in accordance with the table.

In any of the methods of disposing the device icons 501 taken when thedevice control screen 502 is displayed described above, in addition, thedisplay control section 103 may dispose the device icons 501 as groupedunder particular conditions.

In addition, the display control section 103 may dispose the deviceicons 501 as grouped in accordance with the type of the devices 200.FIG. 16 is a screen view showing an example of a mode in which thedevice icons 501 to be retracted are displayed as grouped in retractingthe device icons 501 disposed in the same room region as the device icon501 tapped on by the user. In FIG. 16, the living room and the kitchenare treated as the same room region.

In the example of FIG. 16, two device icons 501 for the television set,two device icons 501 for the air conditioner, one device icon 501 forthe refrigerator, one device icon 501 for the microwave oven, and onedevice icon 501 for the dish washing/drying machine are disposed in theroom region of the kitchen and the living room. Thus, in FIG. 16, twodevice icons 501 for the television set are disposed on the left side ofthe floor plan 500 as grouped as device icons 2301, and two device icons501 for the air conditioner are disposed on the left side of the floorplan 500 as grouped as device icons 2302 for the air conditioner.Consequently, in retracting the device icons 501 disposed in the sameroom region as the device icon 501 tapped on, the display controlsection 103 may group the device icons 501 in accordance with the devicetype by disposing the device icons 501 for the devices 200 of the sametype to be continuous.

The display control section 103 may discriminate the type of the devices200 in accordance with the content registered in a device type 3102 ofthe device list 3100 (see FIG. 35).

Although the device icons 501 for the devices 200 of the same type asthe device 200 represented by the device icon 501 tapped on by the user,among the device icons 501 disposed in the same mom region as the deviceicon 501 tapped on by the user, are grouped into one group in theforegoing description, the embodiment is not limited thereto. Forexample, the display control section 103 may classify the device icons501 disposed in the same room region as the device icon 501 tapped on bythe user into categories matching the type of the devices 200, group thedevice icons 501 in accordance with the category, and dispose the deviceicons 501 on the left side of the floor plan 500 in groups.

For example, as shown in the lower left of FIG. 16, three device icons501 for the refrigerator, a microwave oven, and a dish washing/dryingmachine are classified into a cooking device category, and therefore thethree device icons are grouped as device icons 2303 for the cookingdevices and disposed on the left side of the floor plan 500.

Examples of the other categories include entertainment devices andair-conditioning devices. The entertainment device category includesdevices 200 such as a television set, a recorder, a player, and a hometheater system. The air-conditioning device category includes devices200 such as an air conditioner, an air purifier, a humidifier, adehumidifier, and a home air circulation system.

For example, if the device icons 501 for the television set, therecorder, the air conditioner, and the air purifier are disposed on thefloor plan 500 and the device icon 501 for the television set isselected by the user, the device icons 501 for the television set andthe recorder classified into the entertainment device category aregrouped into one group and disposed on the left side of the floor plan500, and the device icons 501 for the air conditioner and the airpurifier classified into the air-conditioning device category aregrouped into one group and disposed on the left side of the floor plan500.

The display control section 103 may determine the category of thedevices 200 from the content registered in the device type 3102 of thedevice list 3100. In this case, a classification table for determiningthe category of the devices 200 from the content registered in thedevice type 3102 may be stored in advance in the storage section 104,and the display control section 103 may reference the classificationtable to discriminate the category of the devices 200.

A variety of manners of classifying the devices 200 according to thedevice type may be adopted besides that described above. For example, asshown in FIG. 24, the devices 200 may be classified into householdappliance, air-conditioning, and facility categories.

The method of grouping the device icons 501 on the basis of particularconditions and disposing the device icons 501 in groups as describedabove may also be applied to the display mode in which the device icons501 are retracted so as to surround the device control screen 502 asshown in FIGS. 11A, 11B, and 12.

FIGS. 17A and 17B are each a diagram showing a method of displaying thefloor plan 500 with the device control screen 502 displayed. As shown inFIGS. 17A and 17B, there are two types of the method of displaying thefloor plan 500. In a first display method, as shown in FIG. 17A, theentire floor plan 500 is covered by a translucent gray layer (in thedrawing, indicated by dots).

In this case, the background of the device control screen 502 is turnedinto a gray color to emphasize the device control screen 502, whichallows the user to more definitely recognize the device control screen502. In addition, the gray layer is translucent, and the floor plan 500is not completely hidden. This allows the device control screen 502 tobe operated with presence. The gray layer is image data having a colorwith low brightness such as gray and set to predetermined transparency.

The display control section 103 may decide the display order of thedevice control screen 502, the gray layer, and the floor plan 500 suchthat the device control screen 502 is the uppermost layer and the floorplan 500 is the lowermost layer, and synthesize these images. Thisprevents the device control screen 502 from being displayed as coveredby the gray layer.

In a second display method, as shown in FIG. 17B, a non-control targetregion 1302 in the floor plan 500 is covered by a translucent gray layer(the region with dots in the drawing), and a control target region 1301is not covered by the translucent gray layer. This allows the user tooperate the device control screen 502 while being conscious of thecontrol target region 1301, which allows operation with presence. Here,the control target region 1301 refers to a region on the floor plan 500that corresponds to a room in which the device 200 represented by thedevice icon 501 selected by the user is disposed, and the non-controltarget region 1302 refers to a region on the floor plan 500 other thanthe room. For example, in the case where the control target device isthe air conditioner installed in the living room, the control targetregion 1301 is the region on the floor plan 500 corresponding to theliving room, and the non-control target region 1302 is the region on thefloor plan 500 other than the living room.

For example, it is assumed that the user selects the device icon 501 forthe air conditioner with a device ID 3101 of A shown in FIG. 35. In thiscase, the display control section 103 specifies the position (X10, Y100,Z1) of the air conditioner from the content registered in thearrangement 3104 of the air conditioner. Next, the display controlsection 103 references the room information 2900 to decide in which roomthe specified position (X10, Y100, Z1) is positioned. Here, it isassumed that the position (X10, Y100, Z1) is positioned within a regionsurrounded by vertexes with vertex IDs of F, G, H, I, L, O, and N. Then,the display control section 103 determines that the air conditioner isdisposed in the living room with a room ID of A. Then, the displaycontrol section 103 generates a gray layer with the region of the livingroom defined as the control target region 1301 and with the region onthe floor plan 500 other than the living room defined as the non-controltarget region 1302.

The method may also be applied in specifying the device icons 501disposed in the same room region as the room region in which the deviceicon 501 selected by the user is disposed. That is, it is assumed thatthe display control section 103 determines that the device icon 501 forthe air conditioner is disposed in the room region of the living room asdescribed above. In this case, the display control section 103 mayreference the device list 3100 to specify the device icons 501 disposedin the room region of the living room in accordance with the position onthe floor plan 500 registered in the arrangement 3104.

Next, transition between the display state of the basic screen and thedisplay state of the device control screen 502 will be described usingFIG. 18. In the basic screen shown in the left diagram of FIG. 18, theuser taps on the device icon 501 for the device 200 (here, the airconditioner) that is desired to be controlled using a contacting object181 (for example, a finger of the user or a touch pen), and the touchpanel control section 102 senses the tap. Then, as shown in the rightdiagram of FIG. 18, the display control section 103 displays the devicecontrol screen 502 corresponding to the selected device icon 501 asoverlapped on the floor plan 500. This results in transition from thedisplay state of the basic screen to the display state of the devicecontrol screen 502.

On the other hand, as shown in the right diagram of FIG. 18, in thedisplay state of the device control screen 502, the user taps on thedevice icon 501 for the air conditioner corresponding to the devicecontrol screen 502 or a location outside the display region of thedevice control screen 502 (for example, the display region of the floorplan 500 outside the display region of the device control screen 502)using the contacting object 181, and the touch panel control section 102senses the tap. Then, as shown in the left diagram of FIG. 18, thedisplay control section 103 erases the device control screen 502, andreturns from the display state of the device control screen 502 to thedisplay state of the basic screen. At this time, the display controlsection 103 returns the device icon 501 to the original arrangementposition on the floor plan 500.

The operation described above is the same for the floor plan 500 for anyfloor displayed in the basic screen. For example, as shown in the leftdiagram of FIG. 19, in the case where the basic screen displays thefloor plan 602 for the second floor, the user taps on the device icon501 for the device 200 (here, the air conditioner) that is desired to becontrolled using the contacting object 181, and the touch panel controlsection 102 senses the tap. Then, as shown in the right diagram of FIG.19, the display control section 103 displays the device control screen502 corresponding to the selected device icon 501 as overlapped on thefloor plan 602 for the second floor. In the left diagram of FIG. 19, thedevice icon 501 for the illumination device is also disposed in the roomregion in which the device icon 501 for the air conditioner tapped on bythe user is disposed. Therefore, in the right diagram of FIG. 19, thedevice icons 501 for the air conditioner and the illumination device aredisplayed in one vertical line on the left side of the display region ofthe floor plan 500.

On the other hand, as shown in the right diagram of FIG. 19, in thedisplay state of the device control screen 502 for the air conditioner,the user taps on the device icon 501 for the air conditionercorresponding to the device control screen 502 being displayed or alocation outside the display region of the device control screen 502(for example, the display region of the floor plan 500 outside thedisplay region of the device control screen 502) using the contactingobject 181, and the touch panel control section 102 senses the tap.Then, as shown in the left diagram of FIG. 19, the display controlsection 103 erases the device control screen 502, and returns from thedisplay state of the device control screen 502 to the display state ofthe basic screen in which the floor plan 602 for the second floor isdisplayed.

Next, a method of switching from the display state of a certain devicecontrol screen 502 to the display state of another device control screen502 will be described using FIG. 20. As shown in the left diagram ofFIG. 20, in the display state of the device control screen 502 for theair conditioner, the user taps on the device icon 501 for the televisionset which is different from the device icon 501 for the air conditioner,and the touch panel control section 102 senses the tap. Then, as shownin the right diagram of FIG. 20, the display control section 103 erasesthe device control screen 502 which has been displayed, and displays thedevice control screen 502 corresponding to the device icon 501 for thetelevision set as overlapped on the floor plan 500. Switching in theopposite direction is performed in the same manner.

Consequently, when the user successively selects different device icons501, switching is successively performed between the device controlscreens 502, which allows the user to successively control differentdevices 200. That is, in causing another device control screen 502 to bedisplayed while a certain device control screen 502 is displayed, it isno longer necessary for the user to input an operation of erasing thecertain device control screen 502, and switching can be performedbetween the device control screens 502 with one touch operation.

In the display state of the device control screen 502, in the case wherethe user taps on the device icon 501 corresponding to the device controlscreen 502 being displayed, the display control section 103 may onlyerase the device control screen 502, and may not return to the basicscreen. Such screen transition is shown in FIG. 21.

In the left diagram of FIG. 21, the device icon 501 for the airconditioner is selected by the user, and therefore the device controlscreen 502 for the air conditioner is displayed, and all the deviceicons 501 disposed in the same room region as the device icon 501 forthe air conditioner are displayed in one vertical line on the left sideof the floor plan 500. In this state, the user taps on the device icon501 for the air conditioner or a location outside the display region ofthe device control screen 502 in the floor plan 500 using the contactingobject 181, and the touch panel control section 102 senses the tap.Then, as shown in the right diagram of FIG. 21, the display controlsection 103 erases only the device control screen 502 for the airconditioner with the device icons 501 kept displayed in one verticalline. In this case, the device icons 501 do not move onto the floor plan500, and therefore a user's desire to cause only the floor plan 500 tobe displayed may be met.

On the other hand, in the hidden state of the device control screen 502,the user selects a desired device icon 501, and the touch panel controlsection 102 senses the selection. Then, the display control section 103displays the device control screen 502 corresponding to the selecteddevice icon 501. For example, in the right diagram of FIG. 21, when theuser taps on the device icon 501 for the air conditioner among thedevice icons 501 disposed in one vertical line on the left side of thefloor plan 500 using the contacting object 181, the device controlscreen 502 for the air conditioner is displayed as shown in the leftdiagram of FIG. 21.

Next, transition from the display state of the basic screen to thedisplay state of the device control screen 502 represented through ananimation will be described using FIG. 22. As shown in the upper leftdiagram of FIG. 22, the user taps on the device icon 501 for the airconditioner, for example, in the basic screen using the contactingobject 181. Then, the display control section 103 gradually lowers thetransparency of the device control screen 502 for the air conditioner inthe order of the upper right diagram, the lower right diagram, and thelower left diagram of FIG. 22 to a final transparency of 0. At the sametime, the display control section 103 moves all the device icons 501disposed in the same room region as the device icon 501 for the airconditioner onto the outer periphery of an ellipse that surrounds thedevice control screen 502.

Next, transition from the display state of the basic screen to thedisplay state of the device control screen 502 represented through ananimation will be described using FIG. 23. As shown in the upper leftdiagram of FIG. 23, in the basic screen, the user taps on the deviceicon 501 for the device 200 which is the air conditioner, for example,using the contacting object 181. Then, the display control section 103gradually decreases the transparency of the device control screen 502for the air conditioner in the order of the upper right diagram, thelower right diagram, and the lower left diagram of FIG. 23 to a finaltransparency of 0. At the same time, the display control section 103moves all the device icons disposed in the same room region as thedevice icon 501 for the air conditioner to the left side of the floorplan 500.

Consequently, representing the screen transition through an animationcan enhance the interest of the user in operating the device controlscreen 502 through screen rendering shown since the device icon 501 isselected until the device control screen 502 is displayed.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing the configuration of a device list displayscreen. The device list display screen is displayed when the user tapson the device list display change button 503 in the basic screen shownin FIG. 5.

As shown in FIG. 24, the device list display screen includes a devicelist 2000, device details icons 2001, and a basic screen display button2003.

When the user taps on the device details icon 2001 and the touch panelcontrol section 102 senses the tap, the display control section 103causes the device control screen 502 to be displayed as overlapped onthe device list 2000. This allows the user to cause the device controlscreen 502 to be displayed and operate the device 200 as in the casewhere the device icon 501 is tapped on.

The device details icon 2001 is prepared for each device 200. The devicedetails icon 2001 is different from the device icon 501 in representingnot only an image representing the device 200 but also the on/off stateand the operation state of the device 200. For example, the devicedetails icon 2001 for the refrigerator displayed in the upper left ofFIG. 24 displays not only an image of the refrigerator but also “ON”,which indicates that the refrigerator is currently turned on, and“OPERATION/ICE”, which indicates that the refrigerator is currentlymaking ice.

In the device list 2000, the device details icons 2001 are displayed asclassified on the basis of a classification criterion determined inadvance. Examples of the classification criterion determined in advanceinclude the type of the device 200, the room in which the device 200 isdisposed, and the status of use of the device 200. In FIG. 24, the typeof the device 200 is used as the classification criterion, and thedevice details icons 2001 are classified into three categories, namelythe household appliance, air-conditioning, and facility categories.

In the example of FIG. 24, the refrigerator, an electric toothbrush, thewashing machine, and the television set are classified into thehousehold appliance category, the air conditioner and the air purifierare classified into the air-conditioning category, and the toilet, theillumination device, and the bath are classified into the facilitycategory. In this case, a classification table that determines intowhich of the household appliance, air-conditioning, and facilitycategories each device 200 is classified on the basis of the contentregistered in the device type 3102 of the device list 3100 (see FIG. 35)is stored in advance in the storage section 104. Then, the displaycontrol section 103 may reference the classification table to classifyeach device into a category.

Returning to FIG. 24, the button with a text “TO FLOOR PLAN UI”displayed at the lower right of the device list 2000 is the basic screendisplay button 2003. The basic screen display button 2003 is a buttonfor switching the screen from the device list display screen to thebasic screen.

Although switching can be made between the basic screen and the devicelist display screen in the foregoing description, the device listdisplay screen may be utilized as the basic screen in place of the basicscreen shown in FIG. 5. In this case, the basic screen display button2003 may be omitted.

In the foregoing description, one device details icon 2001 is correlatedwith one device 200. However, the present disclosure is not limitedthereto, and one device details icon 2001 may be correlated with aplurality of devices 200 so that the one device details icon 2001 may beused in common to the plurality of devices 200. For example, in the casewhere there are two illumination devices in a living room, the twoillumination devices may be represented by one device details icon 2001.

In this case, when the device details icon 2001 representing the twoillumination devices is tapped on by the user, the display controlsection 103 causes the display 101 to display a device control screen502 that allows simultaneous control of the two illumination devices. Inthis case, the same effect as that obtained in the case where one deviceicon 501 is used in common to a plurality of devices 200 is obtained. Inthe case where one device details icon 2001 is used in common to aplurality of illumination devices, the device details icon 2001 maydisplay the on/off state and the operation state of each of twoillumination devices.

In the basic screen, the device details icon 2001 may be used in placeof the device icon 501. In the device list display screen, the deviceicon 501 may be used in place of the device details icon 2001. Inaddition, the device control screen 502 displayed in the case where thedevice details icon 2001 is selected and the device control screen 502displayed in the case where the device icon 501 is selected may be thesame as or different from each other. For example, the device detailsicon 2001 contains more information than that of the device icon 501,and therefore the device control screen 502 displayed in the case wherethe device details icon 2001 is selected may include more buttons andstates than those of the device control screen 502 displayed in the casewhere the device icon 501 is selected.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing screen transition between the basic screenand the device list display screen. In the basic screen shown in theleft diagram of FIG. 25, when the device list display change button 503is selected by the user, display on the display 101 is switched to thedevice list display screen shown in the right diagram of FIG. 25. On theother hand, in the device list display screen shown in the right diagramof FIG. 25, when the basic screen display button 2003 is selected by theuser, display on the display 101 is switched to the basic screen shownin the left diagram of FIG. 25.

Specifically, when the touch panel control section 102 senses a tap onthe basic screen display button 2003, the display control section 103switches the display screen on the display 101 to the basic screen fromthe device list display screen. On the other hand, in the display stateof the basic screen, when the touch panel control section 102 senses atap on the device list display change button 503, the display controlsection 103 switches the display screen on the display 101 from thebasic screen to the device list display screen.

For example, in the case where the device list display screen isselected for display, and in the case where the user attempts to operatethe television set located in front of the user, the device list displayscreen includes only one device details icon 2001 for the television setif there is only one television set in the house. This allows the userto directly select the device details icon 2001 for the television setwithout an erroneous operation, and to cause the device control screen502 corresponding to the television set to be displayed.

On the other hand, in the case where the device list display screen isselected, the device list display screen focuses on the individualdevices 200, and thus the relationship between the device 200 and thelocation at which the device 200 is disposed is unclear, although it ispossible to operate or confirm the state of the individual devices 200.Therefore, for a plurality of devices 200 installed within the samebuilding, such as the air conditioners or the illumination devices, forexample, it is unclear the air conditioner or the illumination device inwhich room is the control target, which may incur an erroneousoperation.

Thus, in the present disclosure, the basic screen is provided inaddition to the device list display screen to allow selection from thebasic screen and the device list display screen.

Consequently, in the case where the basic screen is selected, therelationship between the device 200 and the location at which the device200 is disposed is made definite. Therefore, also for a plurality ofdevices 200 of the same type installed in the same building, such as theair conditioners or illumination devices, for example, a discriminationas to the air conditioner or the illumination device in which room isthe control target is facilitated. This prevents the air conditioner orthe illumination device installed in a room that is different from thedesired room from being erroneously operated.

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing screen transition between the display stateof the device list display screen and the display state of the devicecontrol screen 502. In the device list display screen shown in the leftdiagram of FIG. 26, the user selects the device details icon 2001 forthe device 200 (here, the air conditioner) that is desired to becontrolled, and the touch panel control section 102 senses theselection. Then, as shown in the right diagram of FIG. 26, the displaycontrol section 103 displays the device control screen 502 for the airconditioner corresponding to the selected device details icon 2001 asoverlapped on the device list display screen. This results in transitionfrom the display state of the device list display screen to the displaystate of the device control screen 502.

In the example in the right drawing of FIG. 26, the display controlsection 103 hides the device details icons 2001 for devices other thanthe air conditioner selected by the user, and only the device detailsicon 2001 for the air conditioner is displayed at a position that isdifferent from that in the device control screen 502. This allows theuser to definitely recognize the device details icon 2001 that the userhimself/herself selected.

On the other hand, as shown in the right diagram of FIG. 26, in thedisplay state of the device control screen 502, the user selects thedevice details icon 2001 for the air conditioner, and the touch panelcontrol section 102 senses the selection. Then, as shown in the leftdiagram of FIG. 26, the display control section 103 erases the devicecontrol screen 502, and returns from the display state of the devicecontrol screen 502 to the display state of the device list displayscreen. In the right diagram of FIG. 26, when the user selects alocation outside the display region of the device details icon 2001 forthe air conditioner and outside the display region of the device controlscreen 502, the display control section 103 may return the display stateto the basic screen shown in the left diagram of FIG. 18.

Although only one device details icon 2001 is displayed in the displaystate of the device control screen 502 shown in the right diagram ofFIG. 26, other device details icons 2001 that are not selected by theuser may be displayed in the same manner as in FIG. 13. In this case,the plurality of device details icons 2001 may be displayed in one lineat an end of the screen as shown in FIG. 13, or may be displayed so asto surround the device control screen 502 as shown in FIG. 12.

According to the configuration, the user can successively select thedevice details icons 2001 in the display state of the device controlscreen 502 to successively display other device control screens 502.Consequently, in causing another device control screen 502 to bedisplayed while a certain device control screen 502 is displayed, it isno longer necessary for the user to input an operation of erasing thecertain device control screen 502, and switching can be performedbetween the device control screens 502 with one touch operation.

FIG. 27 is a diagram showing screen transition between the display stateof the basic screen and the display state of the device control screen502 performed in the case where the basic screen includes a plurality ofdevice icons 501 representing the devices 200 of the same type. As shownin the left diagram of FIG. 27, the basic screen includes two deviceicons 501 for the television set. Here, the device icon 501 for atelevision set A is represented as a device icon 2401, and the deviceicon 501 for a television set B is represented as a device icon 2402. Atthis time, the user can intuitively select a television set that isdesired to be controlled from the floor plan 500, and operate thetelevision set.

For example, in the right diagram of FIG. 27, the device icon 2402 forthe television set B is selected, and a device control screen 2403 forthe television set B is displayed. In the room region in which thedevice icon 2402 is disposed, the device icon 501 for the airconditioner is disposed. Therefore, in the right diagram of FIG. 27, thedevice icons 501 for the television set and the air conditioner aredisplayed in one vertical line on the left side of the floor plan 500.In the right diagram of FIG. 27, when the user selects the device icon501 for the television set, the display control section 103 returns thedisplay state to the basic screen shown in the left diagram of FIG. 27.

Consequently, even if there are a plurality of device icons 501 for thedevices 200 of the same type, each device icon 501 is disposed at aposition on the floor plan 500 corresponding to the actual installationposition. This allows the user to intuitively select the device icon 501for a device 200 that is desired to be controlled in accordance with thedisplay position on the floor plan 500, which prevents the devicecontrol screen 502 for another device 200 from being erroneouslydisplayed.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing screen transition performed in the casewhere different device icons 501 are successively selected in thedisplay state of the device control screen 502 to successively switchbetween the device control screens 502. In the upper left diagram, adevice control screen 2511 for the air conditioner is displayed. In theroom region in which the device icon 501 for the air conditioner isdisposed, the device icons 501 for the television set, the refrigerator,and the illumination device are also disposed. Therefore, in the upperleft diagram of FIG. 28, the device icons 501 for the television set,the refrigerator, and the illumination device in addition to the airconditioner are displayed in one vertical line on the left side of thefloor plan 500.

When the device icon 2501 for the refrigerator is selected in thisstate, a device control screen 2512 for the refrigerator is displayed onthe display 101 as shown in the upper right diagram. When the deviceicon 2502 for the television set is selected in the upper left diagram,a device control screen 2513 for the television set is displayed asshown in the lower right diagram. Such screen transition is performed inthe same manner in the upper right diagram and the lower right diagram.

Consequently, when the user selects the device icon 501 in the displaystate of the device control screen 502, the device control screen 502corresponding to the device icon 501 can be directly displayed.Therefore, in the case where another device control screen 502 is to bedisplayed while a certain device control screen 502 is displayed, theother device control screen 502 can be displayed with one touchoperation without inputting an operation of erasing the device controlscreen 502 being displayed. This allows the user to smoothly switchbetween the device control screens 502.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing an example of display on the basic screenof the device icons 501 for incommunicable devices 200 that cannot bedetected on the network. The device management section 105 detects adevice 200 that cannot be detected on the network and a device 200 thatdoes not respond to a control command even though registered in thedevice list 3100 as incommunicable devices 200. Then, the displaycontrol section 103 displays the device icons 501 for the incommunicabledevices 200 in a display mode that is different from that for the deviceicons 501 for communicable devices 200.

For example, in FIG. 29, the device icons 501 for the incommunicabledevices 200 are represented as device icons 2601. The device icons 2601are displayed translucently. This allows the user to immediatelyrecognize that the devices 200 indicated by the device icons 2601 arecurrently out of order or cannot be controlled because of occurrence ofa communication failure.

Although the device icons 2601 are displayed translucently in FIG. 29,the present disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, the deviceicons 2601 may be displayed in a fainter color or more darkly than theother device icons 501, or provided with an annotation mark.

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing the configuration of home information 2700.The home information 2700 is managed by the server 300 for each house,and the home controller 100 controls display on the basic screen, thedevice control screen 502, and so forth on the basis of the homeinformation 2700. As shown in FIG. 30, the home information 2700includes the floor plan 500, vertex information 2800, the roominformation 2900, and a device list 4700 managed by the server.

As shown in FIG. 6, the floor plan 500 is a plan view that is preparedfor each floor of a house and that planarly represents the arrangementand the shape of one or more rooms forming the floor. In the presentdisclosure, the floor plan 500 includes a plan view formed from imagedata represented in a bitmap format, for example.

The vertex information 2800 is information for adapting the floor plan500 to a two-dimensional coordinate-axis space to allow the homecontroller 100 to interpret the floor plan 500. The room information2900 is information for deciding the regions of rooms from the vertexinformation 2800. The vertex information 2800, the room information2900, and the device list 4700 managed by the server will be describedin detail below.

FIG. 31 is a diagram showing the configuration of the vertex information2800. As shown in FIG. 31, the vertex information 2800 includes a vertexID 2801 and a vertex coordinate 2802. The vertex ID 2801 is anidentifier that identifies a vertex on the floor plan 500. The vertexcoordinate 2802 is a coordinate represented in the format of (Xcoordinate, Y coordinate, floor number), and indicates the position of avertex of a partition line or the like represented on the floor plan500. For example, the vertex with a vertex ID of B has a vertexcoordinate (X20, Y0, Z1), which represents the position on the firstfloor (the ground floor) with an X coordinate of 20 and a Y coordinateof 0.

FIG. 33 is a diagram showing the correlation between each vertexregistered in the vertex information 2800 and the floor plan 500. Itshould be noted, however, that in FIG. 33, the upper left vertex of thefloor plan 500 is the origin (with an X coordinate of 0 and a Ycoordinate of 0). For example, the vertex with a vertex ID of A has avertex coordinate (X0, Y0, Z1), and therefore is positioned at theorigin. Meanwhile, the vertex with a vertex ID of B has a vertexcoordinate (X20, Y0, Z1), and therefore is positioned at the upper rightvertex of the bath.

FIG. 32 is a diagram showing the configuration of the room information2900. As shown in FIG. 32, the room information 2900 includes a room ID2901, the room type 2902, and a room coordinate 2903. The room ID 2901is an identifier that identifies a room on the floor plan 500. The roomtype 2902 indicates the type of the room. The room coordinate 2903 isexpressed by a set of the vertex IDs 2801, and decides the region of theroom on the floor plan 500. For example, the room with a room ID of C isthe bath, and indicates a region formed by connecting the vertexes withvertex IDs of A, B, G, and F sequentially in this order on the floorplan 500. The room information 2900 includes not only information on therooms but also information on the staircase. The region with a room IDof D formed by connecting the vertexes with vertex IDs of H, I, R, and Qsequentially in this order represents the staircase.

Consequently, with the vertex information 2800 and the room information2900 provided, the home controller 100 can specify the regions of therooms represented on the floor plan 500 by plotting the vertexesindicated by the vertex information 2800 on the image data for the floorplan 500 and connecting the vertexes indicated by the room coordinate2903, and recognize the type of the rooms from the room type 2902.

The vertex information 2800 may be generated by a system administratorby causing the floor plan 500 to be displayed on a display of a personalcomputer, detecting vertexes from the displayed floor plan, andinputting the vertex ID and the vertex coordinate of the detectedvertexes to the personal computer. The vertex information 2900 may alsobe generated by the system administrator by detecting rooms from thefloor plan displayed on a display, and inputting the room ID, the roomtype, and the room coordinate of the detected rooms to a personalcomputer. Alternatively, the vertex information 2800 and the roominformation 2900 may be generated by taking in CAD data which are theoriginal data for the floor plan 500.

FIG. 34 is a diagram showing the configuration of the device list 4700managed by the server 300. As shown in FIG. 34, the device list 4700includes a device ID 4701, a device type 4702, a model number 4703, anarrangement 4704, a capability information 4705, and a control commandtransmission destination 4706.

The device ID 4701 is the identifier of the device 200. The device type4702 indicates the type of the device 200. The model number 4703indicates the model number of the device 200. The arrangement 4704 is acoordinate represented in the format of (X coordinate, Y coordinate,floor number) as with the vertex coordinate 2802, and indicates thearrangement of the device icon 501 corresponding to the device 200 onthe floor plan 500.

The display control section 103 can dispose the device icon 501 on thefloor plan 500 on the basis of the arrangement 4704, and display thebasic screen and so forth. The capability information 4705 indicates thecontent for control of the device 200 and the state that can be acquiredfrom the device 200. For example, the air conditioner with a device IDof A can be controlled for the temperature, the air flow direction, andthe air flow amount. The control command transmission destination 4706indicates the transmission destination of a control command forcontrolling the device 200. For example, the control commandtransmission destination 4706 for the air conditioner with a device IDof A is the device, and therefore a control command is directlytransmitted from the home controller 100 to the device 200. Meanwhile,the control command transmission destination 4706 for the refrigeratorwith a device ID of C is the server, and therefore a control command istransmitted from the home controller 100 to the device 200 via theserver 300. The control command is a command for operating the device200 or confirming the state of the device 200.

The current state of the device 200 may be registered in the device list4700. This allows the server 300 to notify the home controller 100 ofthe state of the relevant device 200 in the case where a request forconfirmation of the state of the device 200 is made from the homecontroller 100.

As discussed above, in order to dispose the device icon 501 on the floorplan 500 on the basis of the actual arrangement of the device 200 withinthe house, the user moves the device icon 501 to an appropriate positionon the floor plan 500. Thus, for the device icon 501 of which thearrangement on the floor plan 500 is not specified by the user, a valuethat indicates an unset arrangement such as (0, 0, 0) is set as thevalue of the arrangement 4704. The display control section 103 displaysthe device icon 501 with the arrangement 4704 unset at a position on thedisplay 101 determined in advance.

The device list 4700 managed by the server may be omitted from the homeinformation 2700. In this case, the home controller 100 may directlyacquire from the device 200 information corresponding to the device type4702, the model number 4703, and the capability information 4705provided in the device list 4700 managed by the server.

FIG. 35 is a diagram showing the configuration of the device list 3100managed by the home controller 100. The home controller 100 disposes thedevice icons 501 on the floor plan 500 in the basic screen and controlsthe devices 200 on the basis of information in the device list 3100.

The device list 3100 includes the device ID 3101, the device type 3102,a model number 3103, the arrangement 3104, capability information 3105,a control command transmission destination 3106, and an IP address 3107.The device ID 3101 to the control command transmission destination 3106are the same in content as those with the same name in FIG. 34.

In the device list 3100, the content of the device type 3102, the modelnumber 3103, the arrangement 3104, the capability information 3105, thecontrol command transmission destination 3106 can be acquired by thedevice management section 105 by transmitting the device list 4700 fromthe server 300. The IP address 3107 is acquired from the device 200 bythe device management section 105. It should be noted, however, that thedevice management section 105 may give priority to the content of thedevice type 3102, the model number 3103, the capability information3105, and the control command transmission destination 3106 that can bedirectly acquired from the device 200 in the case where such content isavailable.

The control command transmission destination 3106 may be determined inadvance by the home controller system, may be automatically decided onthe basis of the state of the network to which the home controller 100is connected, or may be set by the user, rather than being acquired fromthe server 300 or the device 200.

Next, the flow of control performed on the device 200 by the homecontroller 100 will be described using the drawings.

FIG. 36 is a sequence diagram showing the flow of a process for the homecontroller 100 to acquire the home information 2700 from the server 300.The home controller 100 acquires the home information 2700 from theserver 300 at desired timing such as when the home controller 100 isinitially utilized or started, and generates the basic screen shown inFIG. 5 on the basis of the acquired home information 2700.

First, the device management section 105 of the home controller 100transmits a home information request to the server 300 (S3201). Here,the home information request includes at least a home controller ID thatindicates a user or a home that utilizes the home controller 100. Thehome information management section 301 of the server 300 which receivesthe home information request searches the storage section 304 for thehome information 2700 corresponding to the home controller ID (S3202),and transmits the home information 2700 to the home controller 100(S3203). The device management section 105 of the home controller 100stores the home information 2700 received from the server 300 in thestorage section 104, and the display control section 103 generates abasic screen on the basis of the home information 2700, and displays thebasic screen on the display 101 (S3204).

Next, the flow of a process for the home controller 100 to detect thedevice 200 on the network after the home controller 100 is connected tothe network will be described using FIG. 37.

In FIG. 37, a device A 200 with a device ID of A and a device B 200 of adevice ID of B shown in FIG. 34 are connected to the network.

When the home controller 100 is connected to the network when the homecontroller 100 is initially utilized or turned on (S3301), the devicemanagement section 105 of the home controller 100 broadcasts a devicesearch request to all the devices 200 on the network (S3302). The deviceA 200 which receives the device search request returns a device searchresponse to the home controller 100 (S3303). The home controller 100which receives the device search response acquires device informationfrom the device A 200 (S3304), and updates the display screen (S3305).

Similarly, the device B 200 which receives the device search requestreturns a device search response to the home controller 100 (S3306). Thehome controller 100 which receives the device search response acquiresdevice information from the device B 200 (S3307), and updates thedisplay screen (S3308). Here, the device information is information thatrepresents the device type, the model number, the capabilityinformation, and so forth of the device 200. The device managementsection 105 of the home controller 100 generates the device list 3100(see FIG. 35) on the basis of the device information.

Next, the flow of a process for the home controller 100 to detect thedevice 200 on the network when the device 200 is connected to thenetwork will be described using FIG. 38. When the device A 200 isconnected to the network when the device A 200 is initially utilized orturned on (S3401), a network connection notification is broadcast to allthe home controllers 100 on the network (S3402). In the home controller100 which receives the network connection notification, the devicemanagement section 105 acquires device information from the device A 200(S3403), and the display control section 103 updates the display screen(S3404). When the device B 200 is connected to the network, the sameprocess as for the device A 200 is performed (S3405 to S3408).

Here, the update of the display screen of the home controller 100 inFIGS. 37 and 38 (S3305, S3308, S3404, and S3408) will be described. Thehome controller 100 hides the device icon 501 corresponding to thedevice 200 until the device search response or the network connectionnotification is received from the device 200, that is, until the device200 is detected on the network. Then, the home controller 100 whichreceives the device search response displays the device icon 501 for thecorresponding device 200 on the screen. Alternatively, the homecontroller 100 displays the device icon 501 for the undetected device200 in a faint color (for example, translucently) compared to the deviceicon 501 for the detected device 200. Then, the home controller 100which receives the device search response changes the color of thedevice icon 501 for the undetected device 200 to the same color as thecolor of the device icon 501 for the detected device 200.

FIGS. 39A to 39E are each a flowchart showing the flow of a process forthe home controller 100 to control the device 200 according to theembodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment, the homecontroller 100 adopts a flowchart represented by any one of FIGS. 39A to39D. In addition, FIG. 39E is a flowchart that follows each of FIGS. 39Ato 39D. First, the flow of a process in FIGS. 39A and 39E will bedescribed.

First, the touch panel control section 102 senses that the device icon501 representing a certain device 200 is selected by the user on thebasic screen (S3501). Next, the display control section 103 retracts thedevice icon 501 selected by the user and the other device icons 501disposed in the room region in which the device icon 501 is disposed outof the display region of the device control screen 502 (S3502). In thiscase, the device icons 501 are retracted as shown in FIGS. 11A, 12, and13, for example.

Next, the display control section 103 erases the device icons 501disposed in room regions that are different from the room region inwhich the device icon 501 selected by the user is disposed (S3503). Inthis case, all the device icons 501 disposed in room regions other thanthe room region of the living room in which the device icon 501 selectedby the user is disposed are erased from the display 101 as shown inFIGS. 11A, 11B, 12, and 13.

Next, the display control section 103 adjusts the display positions ofthe retracted device icons 501 (S3504). For example, the selected deviceicons 501 are adjusted so as to be displayed at particular positions asshown in FIGS. 12 and 15.

Next, the display control section 103 judges whether the device controlscreen 502 corresponding to the device icon 501 selected by the user isa dedicated screen or a floor plan (S3505).

Here, the device control screen 502 which is a dedicated screen refersto the device control screen 502 prepared separately from the floor planand displayed as overlapped on the floor plan as shown in FIG. 13. Onthe other hand, the device control screen 502 which is a floor planrefers to the device control screen 502 which is the floor plan itself.

For example, if the illumination device can be turned on and off oradjusted for the brightness by the user by directly tapping on theregion of a room on the floor plan in which the illumination device isdisposed, the illumination device can be operated with presence. In thecase where the user attempts to operate a plurality of illuminationdevices installed in the living room at the same time, meanwhile, theentire screen is covered by the device control screens 502 dedicated tothe illumination devices if the device control screens 502 dedicated tothe individual illumination devices are displayed on the floor plan atthe same time, which lowers the viewability.

Thus, in the following description, it is assumed that the devicecontrol screen 502 for the illumination device is a floor plan.Specifically, when the user selects the device icon 501 for theillumination device installed in a certain room in the basic screen, thedevice icons 501 disposed in the same room region as the device icon 501are retracted out of the display region of the floor plan, and the floorplan becomes ready to receive an operation for the illumination devicein the room. Then, when the user taps on the region of the room on thefloor plan in which the selected illumination device is installed, oneor more illumination devices within the room can be operated at the sametime.

For example, when the user taps on the region of a room with theillumination devices in the room turned off, one or more illuminationdevices in the room are turned on at the same time. Next, when the usertaps on the region, the one or more illumination devices are turned offat the same time.

In the case where the device control screen 502 is a floor plan inS3505, and if the room region in which the device icon 501 is disposedis equal to or less than a certain size (YES in S3507), the displaycontrol section 103 causes the device control screen 502 dedicated tothe device in which the room region is displayed as enlarged to bedisplayed as overlapped on the floor plan (S3508). Here, for example, afloor plan formed by clipping the floor plan of the relevant room fromthe floor plan for the entire floor and enlarging the clipped floor planis displayed as overlapped on the floor plan for the entire floor.

If the room region in which the device icon 501 is disposed is largerthan the certain size (NO in S3507), on the other hand, the displaycontrol section 103 displays the floor plan as the device control screen502 (S3509).

Information as to whether a dedicated screen or a floor plan is adoptedas the device control screen 502 for each device 200 is stored inadvance in the storage section 104. Thus, the display control section103 may reference the information to determine whether the devicecontrol screen 502 is a dedicated screen or a floor plan.

In addition, the display control section 103 may calculate the size ofthe relevant room region by specifying the vertexes of the relevant roomfrom the room information 2900, specifying the coordinates of thespecified vertexes from the vertex information 2800, and calculating thearea of a region surrounded by the specified coordinates of thevertexes. Then, the result of determination in S3507 may be NO if thesize of the room region is larger than the certain size determined inadvance, and the result of determination in S3507 may be YES if the sizeof the room is equal to or less than the certain size.

In the case where the device control screen 502 is a dedicated screen inS3505, on the other hand, the display control section 103 displays thededicated screen as overlapped on the floor plan (S3506).

Next, the process proceeds to FIG. 39E. In S3510, the touch panelcontrol section 102 senses that a contacting object (here, a finger ofthe user) starts contacting the display 101.

Next, the touch panel control section 102 determines whether or not thecontact target is the device icon 501 (S3511).

If it is determined that the device icon 501 is contacted (YES inS3511), the touch panel control section 102 determines whether or notthe contacting object contacts the same device icon 501 as the deviceicon 501 selected in S3501 (S3512). In the case where it is determinedthat the contacting object contacts the same device icon 501 as thedevice icon 501 selected in S3501 (YES in S3512), the display controlsection 103 hides the device control screen 502 being displayed todisplay the basic screen (S3515). In the case where the determinationresult in S3512 is NO, on the other hand, the process returns to S3504of FIG. 39A.

In the case where the touch panel control section 102 determines thatthe device icon 501 is not contacted (NO in S3511), the touch panelcontrol section 102 further determines whether or not the contact targetis the device control screen 502 (S3513). In the case where it isdetermined that the contact target is not the device control screen 502(NO in S3513), the display control section 103 hides the device controlscreen 502 being displayed to display the basic screen (S3515).

If the touch panel control section 102 determines that the contactingobject contacts a button or the like within the device control screen502 (YES in S3513), on the other hand, the process is advanced to S3514,where a control flow that is specific to the device is executed (S3514).

Next, FIG. 39B will be described. FIG. 39B is different from FIG. 39A inS3502. In FIG. 39A, the display control section 103 retracts the deviceicon 501 selected in S3501 and the device icons 501 disposed in the sameroom region as the device icon 501 out of the display region of thedevice control screen 502. In S3502 of FIG. 39B, on the other hand, thedisplay control section 103 erases the device icon 501 selected inS3501, and retracts the device icons 501 disposed in the same roomregion as the device icon 501 out of the display region of the devicecontrol screen 502. In this case, as shown in FIG. 11B, the device icon501 for the air conditioner is erased, and the device icons 501 for thetelevision set, the refrigerator, and the illumination device, which aredisposed in the same room region as the air conditioner, are retracted.Alternatively, in FIG. 13, the device icons 501 for the television set,the refrigerator, and the illumination device excluding the device icon501 for the air conditioner are displayed in one vertical line on theleft side of the floor plan 500. The process in FIG. 39B is otherwisethe same as the process in FIG. 39A.

Next, FIG. 39C will be described. FIG. 39C is different from FIG. 39A inS3503. In S3503 of FIG. 39A, the display control section 103 erases thedevice icons 501 in room regions that are different from the room regionin which the device icon 501 selected in S3501 is disposed. In S3503 ofFIG. 39C, on the other hand, the display control section 103 causes thedevice icons 501 in room regions that are different from the room regionin which the device icon 501 selected in S3501 is disposed to remain onthe floor plan 500. The process is otherwise the same as that in FIG.39A. In this case, in the display 101, as shown in FIG. 14, the deviceicons 501 disposed in room regions other than the living room remain onthe floor plan 501.

Next, FIG. 39D will be described. FIG. 39D is different from FIG. 39A inS3502 and S3503. In S3502 of FIG. 39A, the display control section 103retracts the device icon 501 selected in S3501 and the device icons 501disposed in the same room region as the device icon 501 out of thedisplay region of the device control screen 502. In S3502 of FIG. 39D,on the other hand, the display control section 103 erases the deviceicon 501 selected in S3501, and retracts only the other device icons 501disposed in the same room region as the device icon 501 out of thedisplay region of the device control screen 502. That is, S3502 of FIG.39D is the same as S3502 of FIG. 39B.

In addition, in S3503 of FIG. 39A, the display control section 103erases the device icons 501 disposed in room regions that are differentfrom the room region in which the device icon 501 selected in S3501 isdisposed from the floor plan 500. In S3503 of FIG. 39D, on the otherhand, the display control section 103 causes the device icons 501 inroom regions that are different from the room region in which the deviceicon 501 selected in S3501 is disposed to remain on the floor plan 500.That is, S3503 of FIG. 39D is the same as S3503 of FIG. 39C.

Next, the control flow that is specific to the device executed in S3514of FIG. 39E will be described in detail using FIG. 40. First, the devicecontrol section 106 decides the content of control that is specific tothe device in accordance with the content of a contact by the contactingobject (S3601). Next, the device control section 106 generates a controlcommand according to the content of control (S3602). It is assumed thatthe user taps on the button for raising the temperature with the devicecontrol screen 502 for the air conditioner displayed as shown in FIG.11A and the touch panel control section 102 senses the tap. Then, thedevice control section 106 generates a control command for raising thetemperature of the air conditioner. Next, the device control section 106advances the process to S3603, where a control command transmission flowis executed.

Next, the control command transmission flow executed in S3603 will bedescribed in detail using FIG. 41. First, the device control section 106determines whether or not the home controller 100 is connected to thehome network (S3701). If the home controller 100 is connected to thehome controller (YES in S3701), the device control section 106 checksthe transmission destination of a control command in accordance with thecontent of the control command transmission destination 3106 of thedevice list 3100 (S3702). Here, the home network is a network providedwithin the home of the user. Thus, the result of determination in S3701is NO if the user operates the home controller 100 from a location awayfrom the home, and the result of determination in S3701 is YES if theuser operates the home controller 100 from a location within the home.

If the transmission destination of a control command is “DEVICE” inS3702, the device control section 106 transmits a control command to therelevant device 200 (S3703). If the transmission destination of acontrol command is “SERVER” in S3702, on the other hand, the devicecontrol section 106 transmits a control command to the server 300(S3704).

For example, in the device list 3100, the control command transmissiondestination 3106 of the air conditioner is “DEVICE”, and therefore thedevice control section 106 transmits a control command to the airconditioner. On the other hand, in the device list 3100, the controlcommand transmission destination 3106 of the refrigerator is “SERVER”,and therefore the device control section 106 transmits a control commandto the server 300.

Meanwhile, in the case where it is judged in S3701 that the homecontroller 100 is not connected to the home network (NO in S3701), theprocess in S3704 is performed.

In S3705, the device control section 106 receives the control resultfrom the device 200. Next, in the case where transmission of a controlcommand to all the devices 200 that are operated at the same time iscompleted (YES in S3706), the device control section 106 advances theprocess to S3707. In the case where transmission of a control command toall the devices 200 that are operated at the same time is not completed(NO in S3706), on the other hand, the device control section 106 returnsthe process to S3702, and repeats the processes in and after S3702.

For example, in the case where two illumination devices are installed inthe same room and the two illumination devices are set in advance to beoperated at the same time, the device control section 106 transmits acontrol command to each of the two illumination devices. The result ofdetermination in S3706 is NO for devices 200 that are not operated atthe same time as other devices 200.

Next, the display control section 103 updates the screen displayed onthe display 101 (S3707). For example, if the set temperature of the airconditioner is changed, the device control screen 502 is updated suchthat the temperature display is flashed on and off, for example, untilthe set temperature of the air conditioner is changed by a controlcommand and the temperature display stops flashing when the settemperature of the air conditioner is changed by a control command. Inthe example of the illumination device, the screen is updated such thatthe region on the floor plan of a room in which the illumination deviceis installed becomes brighter than other regions in the case where theillumination device is turned on.

Next, the flow of a process for the home controller 100 to directlycontrol the device 200 will be described using FIG. 42. First, the touchpanel control section 102 of the home controller 100 senses a useroperation on the device control screen 502 (S3801). Next, the devicecontrol section 106 of the home controller 100 generates a controlcommand according to the user operation, and transmits the controlcommand to the device 200 (S3802).

The device 200 which receives the control command executes the controlcommand (S3803), and transmits the control result to the home controller100 (S3804). The display control section 103 of the home controller 100which receives the control result updates the display screen inaccordance with the control result (S3805).

Next, the flow of a process for the home controller 100 to control thedevice 200 by way of the server 300 will be described using FIG. 43.First, the touch panel control section 102 of the home controller 100senses a user operation on the device control screen 502 (S3901). Next,the device control section 106 of the home controller 100 generates acontrol command according to the user operation, and transmits thecontrol command to the server 300 (S3902).

The server 300 which receives the control command transmits the relevantcontrol command to the device 200 (S3903). The device 200 which receivesthe control command executes the control command (S3904), and transmitsthe control result to the server 300 (S3905). The server 300 whichreceives the control result transmits the control result to the homecontroller 100 (S3906). The display control section 103 of the homecontroller 100 which receives the control result updates the displayscreen in accordance with the control result (S3907).

Next, the flow of a process for the home controller 100 to confirm thedevice state of the device 200 by way of the server 300 will bedescribed using FIG. 44. First, the device 200 transmits the currentdevice state to the server 300 (S4001). Here, the device 200 transmitsthe device state to the server 300 when the device 200 is turned on,when the device 200 is turned off, when the device state is changed, orregularly to cause the server 300 to store the device state. The processin S4001 may be executed asynchronously with the processes in S4002 toS4006.

Next, the touch panel control section 102 of the home controller 100senses a user operation on the device control screen 502 (S4002). Next,the device control section 106 of the home controller 100 generates acontrol command according to the user operation, and transmits thecontrol command to the server 300 (S4003). Here, a control command forconfirming the device state of the device 200 is generated.

The server 300 which receives the control command searches for thecurrent device state of the relevant device 200 (S4004), and transmitsthe device state of the relevant device 200 to the home controller 100as the control result (S4005). The display control section 103 of thehome controller 100 which receives the control result updates thedisplay screen in accordance with the control result (S4006). Forexample, if the device control screen 502 for the device 200 isdisplayed on the display 101, the content of the device control screen502 for the device 200 is updated in accordance with the control result.

Next, the flow of a process for the home controller 100 to directlycontrol the devices 200 in the case where the home controller 100controls a plurality of devices 200 with one operation will be describedusing FIG. 45. Here, a case where the home controller 100 controls thedevice A 200 and the device B 200 is described as an example.

First, the touch panel control section 102 of the home controller 100senses a user operation on the device control screen 502 (S4101). Next,the device control section 106 of the home controller 100 generates acontrol command according to the user operation, and transmits thecontrol command to the device A 200 (S4102).

The device A 200 which receives the control command executes the controlcommand (S4103), and transmits the control result to the home controller100 (S4104).

Next, the device control section 106 of the home controller 100transmits to the device B 200 a control command that is the same as thecontrol command transmitted to the device A 200 (S4105). The device B200 which receives the control command executes the control command(S4106), and transmits the control result to the home controller 100(S4107).

The display control section 103 of the home controller 100 whichreceives the control result updates the display screen in accordancewith the control result (S4108). In this case, for example, if thedevice control screens 502 for the devices A 200 and B 200 are displayedon the display 101, the content of the device control screens 502 forthe devices A 200 and B 200 is updated in accordance with the controlresult.

Next, the flow of a process for the home controller 100 to control thedevices 200 by way of the server 300 in the case where the homecontroller 100 controls a plurality of devices 200 with one operationwill be described using FIG. 46. Here, a case where the home controller100 controls the device A 200 and the device B 200 is described as anexample. In addition, it is assumed that the devices A 200 and B 200 arerepresented by one device icon 501, and controlled using one devicecontrol screen 502.

First, the touch panel control section 102 of the home controller 100senses a user operation on the device control screen 502 (S4201).

Next, the device control section 106 of the home controller 100generates a control command for the device A 200 according to the useroperation, and transmits the control command to the server 300 (S4202).

The server 300 which receives the control command for the device A 200transmits the control command to the device A 200 (S4203). The device A200 which receives the control command executes the control command(S4204), and transmits the control result to the server 300 (S4205). Theserver 300 which receives the control result transmits the controlresult to the home controller 100 (S4206).

Similarly, the device control section 106 of the home controller 100generates a control command for the device B 200 according to the useroperation, and transmits the control command to the server 300 (S4207).

The server 300 which receives the control command transmits the controlcommand to the device B 200 (S4208). The device B 200 which receives thecontrol command executes the control command (S4209), and transmits thecontrol result to the server 300 (S4210). The server 300 which receivesthe control result transmits the control result to the home controller100 (S4211).

Then, the display control section 103 of the home controller 100 updatesthe display screen in accordance with the control result (S4212).

Next, the flow of a process for the home controller 100 to control thedevices 200 by way of the server 300 in the case where the homecontroller 100 controls a plurality of devices 200 with one operationwill be described using FIG. 47. Here, a case where the home controller100 controls the device A 200 and the device B 200 is described as anexample. In addition, it is assumed that the devices A 200 and B 200 arerepresented by one device icon 501, and controlled using one devicecontrol screen 502.

First, the touch panel control section 102 of the home controller 100senses a user operation on the device control screen 502 (S4301).

Next, the device control section 106 of the home controller 100generates a control command for the device A 200 and the device B 200 inaccordance with the user operation, and transmits the control command tothe server 300 (S4302).

The server 300 which receives the control command transmits the controlcommand to the device A 200 (S4303). The device A 200 which receives thecontrol command executes the control command (S4304), and transmits thecontrol result to the server 300 (S4305).

Similarly, the server 300 transmits the control command to the device B200 (S4306). The device B 200 which receives the control commandexecutes the control command (S4307), and transmits the control resultto the server 300 (S4308). The server 300 which receives the controlresult for the device A 200 and the device B 200 transmits the controlresult to the home controller 100 (S4309).

Then, the display control section 103 of the home controller 100 updatesthe display screen in accordance with the control result (S4310).

Next, the flow of a process for a case where the device icon 501 ismoved in the home controller 100 will be described using FIG. 48. Here,it is assumed that the user owns two home controllers A 100 and B 100.

When the touch panel control section 102 of the home controller A 100senses movement of the device icon 501 (S4801), the display controlsection 103 updates the display screen (S4802). Here, the displaycontrol section 103 displays the device icon 501 moved in accordancewith the amount of a drag performed on the device icon 501 by the user.

The device management section 105 of the home controller A 100 transmitsto the server 300 a device list update notification including thecoordinate on the floor plan 500 after the drag (S4803). Here, thedevice management section 105 of the home controller A 100 updates thecontent of the arrangement 3104 of the relevant device 200 in the devicelist 3100 managed by the device management section 105 itself with thecoordinate after the drag.

The server 300 which receives the device list update notificationupdates the device list 4700 (S4804). In this case, the home informationmanagement section 301 of the server 300 updates the content of thearrangement 4704 of the relevant device 200 in the device list 4700 withthe coordinate included in the device list update notification.

Subsequently, the server 300 transmits the device list updatenotification to the home controller B 100 (S4805). The home controller B100 which receives the device list update notification updates thedisplay screen (S4806). Here, the device management section 105 of thehome controller B 100 updates the content of the arrangement 3104 of therelevant device 200 in the device list 3100 managed by the devicemanagement section 105 itself with the coordinate included in the devicelist update notification.

The device icon 501 is disposed at an appropriate position on the floorplan 500 through the process described above. Because the homecontroller B 100 is notified of the update of the arrangement positionof the device icon 501 performed by the home controller A 100 by way ofthe server 300, the arrangement position of the device icon 501 afterthe update is shared among the home controllers A 100 and B 100 and theserver 300. Therefore, it is possible to avoid trouble in which thearrangement position of the device icon 501 is different between thehome controller A 100 and the home controller B 100.

Next, an example of a process for updating the device lists of the homecontroller 100 and the server 300 will be described using FIG. 49. Thedevice 200 transmits the device state indicating the current state ofthe device 200 itself to the server 300 (S4901). Here, the device 200may regularly transmit the device state, or may transmit the devicestate when the state is varied. The server 300 updates the device list4700 in accordance with the content of the received device state(S4902). Here, in the case where the device list 4700 does not containinformation on the device 200, the server 300 adds information on thedevice 200 as a new device. Then, the server 300 transmits a device listupdate notification to the home controller 100 (S4903). The devicemanagement section 105 of the home controller 100 updates the devicelist 3100 in accordance with the content of the received device listupdate notification (S4904). Here, in the case where the device list3100 does not contain information on the device 200, the devicemanagement section 105 adds information on the device 200 as a newdevice. Then, the display control section 103 of the home controller 100updates the display screen (S4905).

Consequently, the server 300 is notified of variation in state of thedevice 200, which allows the server 300 to monitor variation in state ofthe device 200. The server 300 to which the device state is transmittedfrom the device 200 notifies the home controller 100 of variation instate of the device 200, which allows the home controller 100 torecognize the current state of the device 200. In the case where a newdevice 200 is connected to the home network, the server 300 and the homecontroller 100 can add the new device. Hence, it is possible to preventoccurrence of deviation between the actual state of the device 200 andthe state of the device 200 recognized by the home controller 100.

Next, another example of the process for updating the device lists ofthe home controller 100 and the server 300 will be described using FIG.50. The device 200 transmits the device state to the home controller 100(S5001). Here, the device 200 may regularly transmit the device state,or may transmit the device state when the state is varied.

The device management section 105 of the home controller 100 updates thedevice list 3100 in accordance with the content of the received devicestate (S5002). Here, in the case where the device list 3100 does notcontain information on the device 200, the device management section 105adds information on the device 200 as a new device. Then, the displaycontrol section 103 updates the display screen (S5003). Then, the devicemanagement section 105 of the home controller 100 transmits a devicelist update notification to the server 300 (S5004). The server 300updates the device list 4700 in accordance with the received device listupdate notification (S5005). Here, in the case where the device list4700 does not contain information on the device 200, the server 300 addsinformation on the device 200 as a new device.

Next, still another example of a process in which the home controller100 and the server 300 update the device list will be described usingFIG. 51. In FIG. 51, a case where the user owns two home controllers100, namely an in-home home controller 100 and an out-home homecontroller 100, is described as an example. Here, the out-home homecontroller 100 is a home controller 100 taken away from the home by theuser, and the in-home home controller 100 is a home controller 100 keptat the home by the user.

The device 200 transmits the device state to the in-home home controller100 (S5101). The in-home home controller 100 updates the device list3100 in accordance with the content of the received device state(S5102). Here, in the case where the device list 3100 does not containinformation on the device 200, the device management section 105 addsinformation on the device 200 as a new device. Then, the display screenis updated (S5103). Then, the in-home home controller 100 transmits adevice list update notification to the server 300 (S5104).

The server 300 updates the device list 4700 in accordance with thecontent of the received device list update notification (S5105). Here,in the case where the device list 4700 does not contain information onthe device 200, the server 300 adds information on the device 200 as anew device. Then, the server 300 transmits a device list updatenotification to the out-home home controller 100 (S5106). The out-homehome controller 100 updates the device list 3100 in accordance with thecontent of the received device list update notification (S5107). Here,in the case where the device list 3100 does not contain information onthe device 200, the device management section 105 of the out-home homecontroller 100 adds information on the device 200 as a new device. Then,the display screen is updated (S5108).

According to the example, even in the case where one home controller 100is located away from the home and the other home controller 100 islocated in the home, it is possible to prevent occurrence of deviationbetween the states of the device 200 recognized by the two homecontrollers 100.

The sequences and the process flows described above are merelyexemplary, and the order of the steps may be changed and some of thesteps may be omitted as long as the intended process may be embodied.For example, a control command may be transmitted to the device A 200and the device B 200 asynchronously.

In the foregoing description, a plan view that planarly represents theposition and the shape of rooms forming each floor is adopted as thefloor plan 500. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto,and a diagram that schematically shows how many rooms of what type arelocated on each floor may be adopted as the floor plan.

Floor plans in other patterns will be specifically described below. FIG.52 is a diagram showing a floor plan 5200 in another pattern. In thefloor plan 5200, rooms forming one floor are each represented by onerectangular block, and the rooms on the one floor are disposed in amatrix. The blocks have the same size, and are each provided with thename of the room.

In the floor plan 5200, the name and the number of the rooms formingeach floor are indicated, but the relative size and the position in thefloor of the rooms are not represented. In the present disclosure, sucha diagram is treated as the floor plan 5200. That is, in the presentdisclosure, any diagram that represents at least what rooms are providedon each floor are treated as the floor plan.

For example, it is seen that a floor plan 5201 for the first floorincludes rooms such as a living room, a kitchen, a dining room, a bath,a lavatory, a toilet, a staircase, and a hallway. Meanwhile, it is seenthat a floor plan 5202 for the second floor includes rooms such as amain bedroom, a bedroom 1, a bedroom 2, a child's room, and a staircase.

The user can drag and move a desired room on the floor plan 5200 tochange the position of the room on the floor plan 5200. In the casewhere a large number of devices 200 are disposed within a room and allthe device icons 501 cannot be displayed within the room on the floorplan 5200 using a default room size, the display control section 103 mayincrease the size of the room such that all the device icons 501 can beaccommodated within the room.

FIG. 53 is a diagram showing the configuration of a basic screen thatadopts the floor plan 5200. The floor plan 5200 is displayed on thebasic screen. In addition, the device icons 501 for the devices 200actually disposed are displayed within each room.

For example, the device icons 501 for the television set and theillumination device are displayed in the living room, and therefore itis seen that the television set and the illumination device areinstalled in the living room. In addition, the device icon 501 for theair conditioner is displayed in the dining room, and therefore it isseen that the air conditioner is installed in the

The device list display change button 503 is a button for switching thescreen display from the basic screen to the device list display screendiscussed earlier (see FIG. 24). dining room.

FIG. 54 is a diagram showing the display state of the device controlscreen 502 for a case where the floor plan 5200 shown in FIG. 52 isadopted. In the basic screen shown in FIG. 53, when the touch panelcontrol section 102 senses that the user selects the device icon 501,the display control section 103 causes the display 101 to display thedevice control screen 502 corresponding to the selected device icon 501.In FIG. 54, the device icon 501 for the air conditioner in the diningroom is selected, and therefore the device control screen 502 for theair conditioner is displayed as overlapped on the floor plan 5200.

In displaying the device control screen 502, the display control section103 disposes the device icons 501 disposed in the same room region asthe selected device icon 501, among the device icons 501 displayed onthe floor plan 5200, outside the display region of the device controlscreen 502. In the example of FIG. 54, the selected device icon 501 isdisposed in the room region of the dining room, and therefore only thedevice icons 501 disposed in the room region of the dining room aredisposed in one vertical line on the left side of the floor plan 5200.In addition, all the device icons 501 have been erased from the floorplan 5200.

In disposing the device icons 501 in one vertical line on the left sideof the floor plan 5200, the display control section 103 may group thedevice icons 501 under particular conditions. For example, the deviceicons 501 may be grouped in accordance with the room, may be grouped inaccordance with the type of the device 200, or may be grouped inaccordance with the category based on the type of the device 200.

In the example of FIG. 54, the device icons 501 are disposed on the leftside of the floor plan 5200. However, the device icons 501 may bedisposed in one vertical line on the right side of the floor plan 5200,or may be disposed in one horizontal line on the upper or lower side ofthe floor plan 5200.

In addition, in the case where there are so large a number of deviceicons 501 disposed in the same room region as the selected device icon501 that all the device icons 501 may not be displayed on the left sideof the floor plan 5200, the display control section 103 may scroll thedevice icons 501 upward or downward in accordance with a swipe operationperformed upward or downward on the device icons 501 disposed in oneline on the left side to cause the device icons 501, which have beenhidden, to be displayed within the display 101.

In disposing the device icons 501 in one vertical line on the left sideof the floor plan 5200, the display control section 103 may display thedevice icon 501 selected by the user in a display mode that is differentfrom that for the unselected device icons 501. For example, the selecteddevice icon 501 may be displayed in a color that is different from thatof the unselected device icons 501, may be displayed more brightly thanthe unselected device icons 501, may be displayed more densely than theunselected device icons 501, or may be flashed on and off at a constantcycle.

The display control section 103 may scroll an array of the device icons501 such that the device icon 501 selected by the user is positioned ata conspicuous position (for example, the top, middle, or bottomposition) in the line of icons.

In displaying the device control screen 502, the display control section103 may dispose all the device icons 501 on the outer periphery of anellipse as shown in FIGS. 11A, 11B, and 12. In addition, as shown inFIG. 11A, the device icon 501 selected by the user may be erased fromthe display 101. In FIG. 54, the device icons disposed in room regionsother than the room region in which the device icon 501 selected by theuser is disposed may be caused to remain on the floor plan 5200.

Next, transition between the display state of the basic screen and thedisplay state of the device control screen 502 will be described usingFIG. 55.

In the basic screen shown in the left diagram of FIG. 55, the userselects the device icon 501 for the device 200 (here, the airconditioner) that is desired to be controlled using the contactingobject 181, and the touch panel control section 102 senses theselection. Then, as shown in the right diagram of FIG. 55, the displaycontrol section 103 displays the device control screen 502 correspondingto the selected device icon 501 as overlapped on the floor plan 5200.This results in transition from the display state of the basic screen tothe display state of the device control screen 502. In the example inthe left diagram of FIG. 55, the device icon 501 for the air conditionerdisposed in the room region of the dining room shown in the block in thefirst row and the third column is selected by the user, and only thedevice icon 501 for the air conditioner is disposed in the room regionof the dining room. Therefore, in the right diagram of FIG. 55, thedevice icon 501 of the air conditioner disposed in the room region ofthe dining room is retracted to the left side of the floor plan 5200.

On the other hand, as shown in the right diagram of FIG. 55, in thedisplay state of the device control screen 502, the user selects thedevice icon 501 for the air conditioner corresponding to the devicecontrol screen 502 or a location outside the display region of thedevice control screen 502 (for example, the display region of the floorplan 5200 outside the display region of the device control screen 502),and the touch panel control section 102 senses the selection. Then, asshown in the left diagram of FIG. 55, the display control section 103erases the device control screen 502, and returns from the display stateof the device control screen 502 to the display state of the basicscreen. In the example in the right diagram of FIG. 55, the device icon501 for the air conditioner is selected by the user using the contactingobject 181 to return the screen display on the display 101 to the leftdiagram of FIG. 55.

FIG. 56 is a diagram showing the configuration of a floor plan 5600 fora case where the size of each block is varied in accordance with theactual room size in the floor plan 5200 shown in FIG. 52.

In the left diagram of FIG. 56, a floor plan 5601 for the first floor isshown. In the right diagram of FIG. 56, a floor plan 5602 for the secondfloor is shown.

In the floor plan 5601 for the first floor, the living room is thelargest in terms of the room size, and is followed by the kitchen, thebath, and the staircase. Therefore, the sizes of the rooms are displayedin this order. Also in the floor plan 5602 for the second floor, therooms are represented in accordance with the actual room size. In thiscase, information that indicates the actual room size may be registeredin advance in room information 6800 to be discussed later, and thedisplay control section 103 may decide the size of each room inaccordance with the information.

FIG. 57 is a diagram showing the configuration of a basic screen thatadopts the floor plan 5600 shown in FIG. 56. In the floor plan 5600,each room is displayed with a size matching the actual size. Inaddition, the device icons 501 for the devices 200 actually disposed aredisplayed in each room.

In the case where the mode in which each room is represented with a sizematching the actual room size on the floor plan 5600 is adopted,displaying all the rooms within the display 101 may result in smalldisplay of the rooms to make a user operation difficult. Thus, a roomdisplay button 5603 with a text “DISPLAY OTHER ROOMS” is provided inFIG. 57.

When the user selects the room display button 5603 and the touch panelcontrol section 102 senses the selection, the display control section103 switches the screen display to the floor plan 5600 which displaysthe remaining rooms.

In the example of FIG. 57, the floor plan 5600 is partitioned into thefloor plan 5601 for the first floor and the floor plan 5602 for thesecond floor. Therefore, when the room display button 5603 is selected,the display control section 103 switches display on the display 101 tothe floor plan 5602 for the second floor. In this case, the room displaybutton 5603 is also provided on the floor plan 5602 for the secondfloor. Therefore, when the room display button 5603 is selected, thedisplay control section 103 switches display on the display 101 to thefloor plan 5601 for the first floor.

Although the floor plan is provided for each floor in the example ofFIG. 57, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, inthe case where the floor plan 5601 for the first floor cannot bedisplayed on the display 101 at the same time, the display controlsection 103 may divide the floor plan 5601 for the first floor, anddisplay a divided portion of the floor plan 5601 on the display 101. Inthis case, when the room display button 5603 is selected, a hiddenportion of the floor plan 5601 for the first floor may be displayed.

In the case where the floor plan 5601 for the first floor and the floorplan 5602 for the second floor can be displayed on the display 101 atthe same time, the display control section 103 may display the floorplan 5601 for the first floor and the floor plan 5602 for the secondfloor on the display 101 at the same time. In this case, the roomdisplay button 5603 is omitted from the floor plan 5600.

In the case where the staircase is tapped on on the floor plan 5600, thedisplay control section 103 may switch between the floor plan 5601 forthe first floor and the floor plan 5602 for the second floor.

FIG. 58 is a diagram showing the display state of the device controlscreen 502 for a case where the floor plan 5600 shown in FIG. 56 isadopted as the floor plan. In the example of FIG. 58, the device icon501 for the air conditioner disposed in the room region of the livingroom in the floor plan 5600 shown in FIG. 57 is selected. Therefore, inFIG. 58, as in FIG. 54, the device control screen 502 for the airconditioner is displayed. In addition, in FIG. 57, two device icons 501for the air conditioner, one device icon 501 for the illuminationdevice, one device icon 501 for the television set, and one device icon501 for the air purifier are disposed in the room region of the livingroom. Therefore, in FIG. 58, all the device icons 501 disposed in theroom region of the living room are displayed in one vertical line on theleft side of the floor plan 5600, and all the device icons 501 disposedin room regions other than the living room are erased from the display101. FIG. 58 is otherwise the same as FIG. 54, and therefore is notdescribed. In FIG. 58, the device icon 501 for the air conditionerselected by the user may be erased, and the device icons 501 in roomregions other than the living room may be caused to remain on the floorplan 5600.

FIG. 59 is a diagram showing a floor plan 5900 in still another patternaccording to the present disclosure. The floor plan 5900 of FIG. 59 isthe same as the floor plan 5200 in that rooms are represented by blocksof the same size, but is different from the floor plan 5200 inarrangement of the rooms. Specifically, in the floor plan 5900, thefloor numbers are displayed in the vertical direction, and the roomsforming the same floor are arranged in one horizontal line. In theexample of FIG. 59, the house has three floors, namely the first floorto the third floor, and therefore the rooms forming the third floor aredisposed in the first line, the rooms forming the second floor aredisposed in the second line, and the rooms forming the first floor aredisposed in the third line. The floor number such as 1F, 2F, and 3F isindicated at the left end of each line. It is seen at a glance from thefloor plan 5900 on which floor each room is disposed.

Also in the floor plan 5900, the size of each room may be varied inaccordance with the actual room size. In the floor plan 5900, inaddition, in the case where all the rooms cannot be displayed within thedisplay region of the display 101, the floor plan 5900 may be scrolledin the horizontal direction so that a desired room can be displayed onthe display 101.

For example, in the case where there are further rooms on the secondfloor, when the touch panel control section 102 senses that the userperforms a swipe operation from the left to the right, the displaycontrol section 103 may scroll the rooms forming the second floor, orthe rooms forming the first floor to the third floor, from the left tothe right in accordance with the amount of the swipe operation.

FIG. 60 is a diagram showing the configuration of a basic screen thatadopts the floor plan 5900 shown in FIG. 59. The floor plan 5900 isdisplayed on the basic screen. In addition, the device icons 501 for thedevices 200 actually disposed are displayed within each room. The devicelist display change button 503 is a button for switching the screendisplay from the basic screen to the device list display screendiscussed earlier (see FIG. 24).

FIG. 61 is a diagram showing the display state of the device controlscreen 502 for a case where the floor plan 5900 shown in FIG. 59 isadopted. In the basic screen shown in FIG. 60, when the touch panelcontrol section 102 senses that the user selects the device icon 501,the display control section 103 causes the display 101 to display thedevice control screen 502 corresponding to the selected device icon 501.In FIG. 61, since the device icon 501 for the air conditioner in themain bedroom is selected in FIG. 60, the device control screen 502 forthe air conditioner is displayed as overlapped on the floor plan 5900.In displaying the device control screen 502, the display control section103 disposes the device icons 501 disposed in the room region of themain bedroom, among the device icons 501 displayed on the floor plan5900, outside the display region of the device control screen 502. InFIG. 60, the device icons 501 for the air conditioner and theillumination device are disposed in the main bedroom. Therefore, in theexample of FIG. 61, the device icons 501 for the air conditioner and theillumination device in the main bedroom are disposed in one horizontalline on the lower side of the floor plan 5900.

In disposing the device icons 501 in one vertical line on the lower sideof the floor plan 5900, the display control section 103 may group thedevice icons 501 under particular conditions. For example, the deviceicons 501 may be grouped in accordance with the room, may be grouped inaccordance with the type of the device 200, or may be grouped inaccordance with the category based on the type of the device 200.

In the example of FIG. 61, the device icons 501 are disposed on thelower side of the floor plan 5900. However, the device icons 501 may bedisposed in one horizontal line on the upper side of the floor plan5900, or may be disposed in one vertical line on the left or right sideof the floor plan 5900.

In the case where all the device icons 501 cannot be disposed on thelower side of the floor plan 500, the display control section 103 mayscroll the device icons 501 leftward or rightward in accordance with aswipe operation performed leftward or rightward on the device icons 501disposed in one horizontal line on the lower side to cause the deviceicons 501, which have been hidden, to be displayed within the display101.

In disposing the device icons 501 in one horizontal line on the lowerside of the floor plan 5900, the display control section 103 may displaythe device icon 501 selected by the user in a display mode that isdifferent from that for the unselected device icons 501. For example,the selected device icon 501 may be displayed in a color that isdifferent from that of the unselected device icons 501, may be displayedmore brightly than the unselected device icons 501, may be displayedmore densely than the unselected device icons 501, or may be flashed onand off at a constant cycle.

The display control section 103 may scroll an array of the device icons501 such that the device icon 501 selected by the user is positioned ata conspicuous position (for example, the leftmost, middle, or rightmostposition) in the line of icons.

In displaying the device control screen 502, the display control section103 may dispose the device icons 501 disposed in the same room region asthe device icon 501 selected by the user on the outer periphery of anellipse as shown in FIGS. 11A, 11B, and 12. In addition, in FIG. 61, thedevice icon 501 selected by the user (in this case, the device icon 501for the air conditioner) may be erased, and the device icons disposed inroom regions other than the room region of the main bedroom in which thedevice icon 501 selected by the user is disposed may be caused to remainon the floor plan 5900.

In the floor plan 5900, the rooms on all the floors are displayed on thedisplay 101 at the same time, which may result in small display of therooms to make a user operation difficult. Thus, the display controlsection 103 may display the floor plan 5900 as enlarged in accordancewith the user operation. Specifically, when the user performs anoperation of pinching out on a certain room in the floor plan 5900 andthe touch panel control section 102 senses the operation, the displaycontrol section 103 may display the room on the display 101 as enlargedat an enlargement scale matching the amount of the pinch out.

FIG. 62 is a diagram showing a floor plan that displays a certain roomin the floor plan 5900 as enlarged. As shown in FIG. 62, the displaycontrol section 103 may display a plan view that planarly represents theshape of the relevant room as overlapped on the floor plan 5900.Alternatively, the display control section 103 may switch to displayingthe plan view. This allows the user to grasp the configuration of therooms in the house and the devices 200 disposed in each room on thefloor plan 5900 shown in FIG. 60, and to grasp the actual arrangementposition of the devices 200 in the enlarged room on the floor plan 5900shown in FIG. 62.

In the floor plan 5900 not displayed as enlarged shown in FIG. 60, it isnot necessary for the display control section 103 to display the deviceicons 501 for all the devices 200 disposed within the rooms, and thedisplay control section 103 may display only some of the device icons501.

In this case, the display control section 103 may display one or aplurality of (for example, two) device icons 501 frequently used by theuser on the floor plan 5900. Alternatively, the display control section103 may not display the device icons 501 on the floor plan 5900 notdisplayed as enlarged. This prevents the viewability of the floor plan5900 from being lowered because of an increased number of the deviceicons 501 displayed on the floor plan 5900 not displayed as enlarged.

FIG. 63 is a diagram showing the display state of the device controlscreen 502 in the floor plan 5900 displayed as enlarged shown in FIG.62. In FIG. 63, as in FIG. 54, the device control screen 502 for the airconditioner is displayed. In FIG. 63, only the device icons 501 disposedin the room (living room) displayed as enlarged are displayed on theleft side of the plan view and in the block of the living room. In theexample of FIG. 62, the device icons 501 for the air conditioner, theillumination device, and the television set are displayed in the livingroom within the plan view, and the device icon 501 for the airconditioner is selected by the user. Therefore, the device icons 501 aredisplayed in one vertical line on the left side of the plan view. Thatis, in the example of FIG. 63, the device icon 501 for the airconditioner in the living room is selected, and therefore the deviceicons for the air conditioner, the television set, and the illuminationdevice, which are disposed in the room region of the living room, aredisplayed on the left side of the plan view and in the block of theliving room. In FIG. 63, the selected device icon 501 for the airconditioner may be erased.

In the case where a certain room is displayed as enlarged, it is highlylikely that the user operates the device 200 disposed within the room.In the case where a certain room is displayed as enlarged, in addition,the device icons 501 for devices in the other rooms are not displayed onthe display 101. Therefore, if the device icons 501 for devices disposedin the other rooms are displayed on the left side of the plan view whenthe user selects a certain device icon 501, the user may be given asense of wrongness.

Thus, in the case where a certain room is displayed as enlarged, thedisplay control section 103 causes only the device icons 501 for thedevices 200 disposed in the room to be displayed in one vertical line onthe left side of the plan view. In the example of FIG. 64, the deviceicons 501 are displayed on the left side of the plan view. However, thedevice icons 501 may be displayed in one vertical line on the right sideof the plan view, or may be displayed in one horizontal line on theupper or lower side of the plan view.

FIG. 64 is a diagram showing screen transition from the display state ofthe basic screen to the display state of the device control screen 502.It is assumed that the user taps on the device icon 501 for the airconditioner in the block of the main bedroom disposed on the secondfloor and in the first column, for example, in the basic screen whichdisplays the floor plan 5900 not displayed as enlarged as shown in theupper left diagram of FIG. 64. Then, as shown in the upper right diagramof FIG. 64, the display control section 103 displays the device controlscreen 502 for the air conditioner as overlapped on the basic screen. Inthis case, the device icons for the air conditioner and the illuminationdevice, which are disposed in the room region of the main bedroom, aredisposed in one horizontal line on the lower side of the floor plan5900.

In the screen shown in the upper right diagram of FIG. 64, on the otherhand, when the user taps on a region on the floor plan 5900 other thanthe device control screen 502 or taps on the device icon 501 for the airconditioner, the display control section 103 returns the screen displayto the basic screen shown in the upper left diagram of FIG. 64.

It is assumed that the user pinches out on the living room in the basicscreen shown in the upper left diagram of FIG. 64. Then, as shown in thelower left diagram of FIG. 64, the display control section 103 enlargesthe block of the living room, and at the same time displays the planview of the living room having a size matching the size of the enlargedblock as overlapped on the enlarged block. It is assumed that the userpinches in on the living room in the lower left diagram of FIG. 64.Then, the display control section 103 returns the screen display to thebasic screen shown in the upper left diagram of FIG. 64.

When the device icon 501 for the air conditioner, for example, isselected in the basic screen shown in the lower left diagram of FIG. 64,the display control section 103 displays the device control screen 502for the air conditioner as overlapped on the plan view as shown in thelower right diagram of FIG. 64. In the lower right diagram of FIG. 64,when the user taps on a region on the floor plan 5900 other than thedevice control screen 502 or on the device icon 501 for the airconditioner, the display control section 103 returns the screen displayto the screen shown in the lower left diagram of FIG. 64.

FIG. 65 is a diagram showing the configuration of a basic screen 5900which adopts the floor plan shown in FIG. 59 and in which device icons501 are not displayed. In the mode shown in FIG. 65, only rooms formingeach floor are displayed, and the device icons 501 are not displayed.

FIG. 66 is a diagram showing screen transition from the display state ofthe basic screen to the display state of the device control screen 502for a case where the basic screen in which device icons 501 are notdisplayed is adopted. It is assumed that the user pinches out on theliving room, for example, in the basic screen shown in the upper leftdiagram of FIG. 66. Then, as shown in the lower left diagram of FIG. 66,the display control section 103 displays the block of the living room asenlarged, and displays the plan view of the living room as overlapped onthe block displayed as enlarged. It is assumed that the user taps on thedevice icon 501 for the air conditioner, for example, in the screenshown in the lower left diagram of FIG. 66. Then, as shown in the lowerright diagram of FIG. 66, the display control section 103 displays thedevice control screen 502 for the air conditioner as overlapped on theplan view of the living room, and disposes the device icons 501 for theliving room in one vertical line on the left side of the plan view ofthe living room. In the lower right diagram of FIG. 66, when the usertaps on a region on the floor plan 5900 and outside the display regionof the device control screen 502, the display control section 103returns the display screen to the screen shown in the lower left diagramof FIG. 66. In the lower right diagram of FIG. 66, when the device icon501 for the air conditioner is tapped on again, the display controlsection 103 may return the display screen to the screen shown in thelower left diagram of FIG. 66.

FIG. 67 is a diagram showing the configuration of the home information2700 for a case where the floor plan 5200 shown in FIG. 52 is adopted.As shown in FIG. 67, the home information 6400 includes the floor plan5200, the room information 6800, and the device list 4700 managed by theserver. In the floor plan 5200, the display positions of the rooms aredetermined in advance. Therefore, the vertex information 2800 includedin the home information 2700 is omitted from the home information 6400.

The floor plan 5200 is image data obtained by representing the floorplan 5200 shown in FIG. 52 in a bitmap format, for example.Alternatively, the floor plan 5200 may be information that prescribesthe color, the shape, the size, and so forth for displaying the floorplan 5200. The room information 6800 is information for deciding theregions of rooms from the floor plan 5200.

FIG. 68 is a diagram showing the configuration of room information 6800shown in FIG. 67. As shown in FIG. 68, the room information 6800includes a room ID 6801, a room type 6802, a floor level 6803, and adisplay position 6804. The room ID 6801 is an identifier that identifiesa room on the floor plan 5200. The room type 6802 indicates the type ofthe room. The floor level 6803 indicates the floor level (floor) onwhich the room is disposed. The display position 6804 indicates thearrangement position of the room on the floor plan 5200.

FIG. 69 is a diagram showing an example of the correspondence betweenthe display position 6804 in the room information 6800 and the floorplan 5200. As shown in FIG. 69, the order of the blocks on the floorplan 5200 is prescribed such that the block in the first row and thefirst column corresponds to the first cell, the block in the first rowand the second column corresponds to the second cell, the block in thefirst row and the third column corresponds to the third cell, the blockin the second row and the first column corresponds to the fourth cell,and so forth.

For example, the room with a room ID 6801 of A has a display position6804 of “FIRST CELL ON FIRST FLOOR”. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 69, thedisplay control section 103 interprets the block in the first cell (inthe first row and the first column) on the floor plan 5201 for the firstfloor as the living room.

In the example of FIG. 69, the blocks are disposed in three horizontallines, and therefore the cell in the second row and the first columncorresponds to the fourth cell, and the cell in the third row and thefirst column corresponds to the seventh cell. It should be noted,however, that this is merely exemplary. For example, in the case wherethe cells are arranged in four columns in the horizontal direction, thecorrelation between the order of the cells and the arrangement positionsof the blocks is changed as appropriate in accordance with the number ofblocks in the horizontal direction, and the cell in the second row andthe first column corresponds to the fifth cell, and the cell in thethird row and the first column corresponds to the ninth cell.

FIG. 70 is a diagram showing the configuration of a device list 4700managed by the server 300 for a case where the floor plan 5200 shown inFIG. 52 is adopted. It is not necessary for the floor plan 5200 toindicate the arrangement position of the device 200 in the room.Therefore, in the device list 4700 shown in FIG. 70, unlike FIG. 34, theroom type 6802 is registered in the arrangement 4704. The device list4700 shown in FIG. 70 is otherwise the same as the device list 4700shown in FIG. 34. For example, the air conditioner with a device ID 4701of A is disposed in the living room, and therefore “LIVING ROOM” isregistered in the arrangement 4704. In the example of FIG. 70, the roomtype 6802 is adopted as the arrangement 4704. However, any otherinformation that specifies a room may be registered. For example, theroom ID 6801 may be adopted as the arrangement 4704.

FIG. 71 is a diagram showing the configuration of a device list 3100managed by the home controller 100 for a case where the floor plan 5200shown in FIG. 52 is adopted. Also in the device list 3100 of FIG. 71,for the same reason as that for the device list 4700 of FIG. 70, theroom type 6802 is registered in the arrangement 3104. The device list3100 of FIG. 71 is otherwise the same as the device list 3100 shown inFIG. 35. Also in FIG. 71, the room ID 6801 may be adopted as thearrangement 3104.

Next, the device list 3100 for a case where the plan view of a certainroom is displayed in the case where a pinch-out operation is performedon the room on the basic screen of the floor plan 5900 as shown in FIG.62 will be described. In this case, the room information 6800 shown inFIG. 68 may include an item of the plan view of the room. Then, imagedata for the plan view of the relevant room may be registered in theitem of the plan view of the room. For the plan view of the room, asshown in FIG. 33, the origin may be set at the left end of the room, forexample, the X axis and the Y axis may be set in the horizontaldirection and the vertical direction, respectively, and the position ofthe room may be represented by the X and Y coordinates.

Meanwhile, not only the room type 6802 but also the coordinate in theroom is registered in the arrangement 3104 of the device list 3100 shownin FIG. 71. This allows the display control section 103 to discriminatefrom the content of the arrangement 3104 at what position on the planview representing the room the device icon 501 is to be disposed.

In the present disclosure, the server 300 is not an essentialconstituent element, and various types of information managed by theserver 300 (such as the home information 2700 and the state of thedevices 200) may be managed by the home controller 100. This allows thepresent disclosure described above to be embodied without the server300. In this case, it is not necessary for the home controller 100 tomanage information on the entire house, and it is only necessary tomanage information related to the devices 200 controlled by the homecontroller 100 and the house in which the devices 200 are disposed.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

According to the present disclosure, when a device icon that representsa target device displayed on a floor plan is selected, a control screenfor the target device is displayed on the floor plan. Therefore, such aconfiguration is useful in the case where a portable informationterminal is used as a remote controller for a plurality of targetdevices.

1. A control method for an information apparatus having a display andbeing connected to a network, one or more target devices beingcontrolled over the network, the control method causing a computer ofthe information apparatus to: display a display screen representing afloor plan of a building on the display, and display device iconsrepresenting the one or more target devices on the display screenrepresenting the floor plan, the device icons being movable; whenselection of a device icon representing one target device, among the oneor more target devices, is sensed in a region corresponding to one roomincluded in the floor plan, display a control screen for operating, orconfirming a state of, the one target device corresponding to the senseddevice icon on the display, and move the device icons representing thetarget devices installed in the one room out of a display region of thecontrol screen; and output a control command to the network on the basisof an operation on the control screen, the control command allowing atleast operation or the state confirmation of the target devicecorresponding to the one target device.
 2. The control method accordingto claim 1, wherein display of the device icons representing the targetdevices installed in rooms other than the one room included in the floorplan is erased.
 3. The control method according to claim 1, wherein thedevice icons representing the target devices installed in rooms otherthan the one room included in the floor plan are displayed at unchangeddisplay positions.
 4. The control method according to claim 1, whereinthe device icons representing the target devices installed in the oneroom are moved to a location outside a region of the control screen andoutside a display region of the display screen representing the floorplan.
 5. The control method according to claim 1, wherein the deviceicons representing the target devices installed in the one room aremoved to a location outside a region of the control screen and in oneline outside a display region of the display screen representing thefloor plan.
 6. The control method according to claim 1, wherein thedevice icons representing the target devices installed in the one roomare moved to a location outside a region of the control screen andoutside a display region of the display screen representing the floorplan, and arranged in one line outside the display region of the displayscreen, and the device icons representing the one or more target devicesarranged in one line are moved in a direction of the line to display theselected device icon, within a display region of the display.
 7. Thecontrol method according to claim 1, wherein: the device iconsrepresenting the target devices installed in the one room are moved to alocation outside the display region of the control screen and around thecontrol screen
 8. The control method according to claim 1, wherein: thefloor plan represented on the display screen includes informationrepresenting arrangement positions at which the one or more targetdevices are arranged; and the device icons representing the one or moretarget devices are displayed at the corresponding arrangement positionsof the one or more target devices included in the floor plan.
 9. Thecontrol method according to claim 8, wherein when selection of a deviceicon representing the one target device included in the floor plan issensed in a region corresponding to a room including informationrepresenting the arrangement position of the one target device, acontrol screen is displayed on the display, the control screen allowingat least operation or the state confirmation of the target device in theroom.
 10. The control method according to claim 9, wherein when thecontrol screen is displayed on the display, the region corresponding tothe room including the information representing the arrangement positionof the one target device is displayed in a different display method fromother regions corresponding to other rooms.
 11. The control methodaccording to claim 9, wherein when the control screen is displayed onthe display, the region corresponding to the room including theinformation representing the arrangement position of the one targetdevice is displayed more brightly than the other regions correspondingto other rooms.
 12. The control method according to claim 1, whereinwhen the control screen is displayed on the display, the display screenis displayed more darkly than the control screen.
 13. The control methodaccording to claim 12, wherein when contact between the display and apredetermined object is sensed outside the region of the control screen,display of the control screen is erased, and the display screen isdisplayed with an original brightness.
 14. The control method accordingto claim 1, wherein when selection of the same device icon as theselected device icon is sensed after the device icons representing thetarget devices installed in the one room are moved out of the displayregion of the control screen, display of the control screen is erased.15. The control method according to claim 1, wherein when selection of adevice icon that is different from the selected device icon, among thedevice icons representing the target devices installed in the one room,is sensed after the device icons representing the target devicesinstalled in the one room are moved out of the display region of thecontrol screen, display of a control screen corresponding to thedifferent device icon is displayed.
 16. The control method according toclaim 1, wherein when selection of a location outside the display regionof the control screen is sensed after the device icons representing thetarget devices installed in the one room are moved out of the displayregion of the control screen, display of the control screen is erased.17. The control method according to claim 14, wherein the moved deviceicons are moved to original positions of the moved device icons whendisplay of the control screen is erased.
 18. The control methodaccording to claim 1, wherein display of the selected device icon amongthe moved device icons, is displayed as distinguished from display ofthe non-selected device icons.
 19. The control method according to claim1, wherein a device icon representing a target device that isincommunicable with the information apparatus, among the device iconsrepresenting the one or more target devices, is displayed more darklythan other device icons.
 20. The control method according to claim 1,wherein a device icon representing a target device that isincommunicable with the information apparatus, among the device iconsrepresenting the one or more target devices, is displayed translucently.21. The control method according to claim 1, wherein: the display is atouch panel display; and selection of the device icon is sensed bysensing a tap on the device icon performed on the touch panel display.22. The control method according to claim 1, wherein selection of thedevice icon is sensed by sensing a click with a mouse pointer.
 23. Thecontrol method according to claim 1, wherein: the information apparatusis connected to a cloud system that manages log information related to ause history of the one or more target devices; a control command forconfirming the state of the corresponding target device is output to thecloud system via the network; and the control method causes the computerof the information apparatus to: receive information indicating thestate of the corresponding target device from the cloud system via thenetwork; and display the information indicating the state of thecorresponding target device on a control screen for confirming the stateof the corresponding target device.
 24. The control method according toclaim 8, wherein the information representing the arrangement positionsof the one or more target devices comprise images representing the oneor more target devices.
 25. The control method according to claim 8,wherein the information representing the arrangement positions of theone or more target devices comprise text information representing theone or more target devices.
 26. The control method according to claim 1,wherein the sensed device icon, among the device icons representing thetarget devices installed in the one room, is not included in the deviceicons to be moved out of the display region of the control screen. 27.The control method according to claim 26, wherein when selection of alocation outside the display region of the control screen is sensedafter device icons other than the sensed device icon, among the deviceicons representing the target devices installed in the one room, aremoved out of the display region of the control screen, display of thecontrol screen is erased.
 28. The control method according to claim 27,wherein the moved device icons are moved to original positions of themoved device icons when display of the control screen is erased.
 29. Anon-transitory computer-readable recording medium which stores a programto be executed by a n information apparatus having a display and beingconnected to a network, one or more target devices are being controlledover the network, the program causing a computer of the informationapparatus to: display a display screen representing a floor plan of abuilding on the display, and display device icons representing the oneor more target devices on the display screen representing the floorplan, the device icons being movable; when selection of a device iconrepresenting one target device among the one or more target devices, issensed in a region corresponding to one room included in the floor plan,display a control screen for operating, or confirming a state of, theone target device corresponding to the sensed device icon on thedisplay, and move the device icons representing the target devicesinstalled in the one room out of a display region of the control screen;and output a control command to the network on the basis of an operationon the control screen, the control command allowing at least operationor the state confirmation of the target device corresponding to the onetarget device.